No man ever declared truer love than I to you."
"I can tell you of a man who has declared truer love," she replied,
looking him steadily in the eyes.
"Who in God's name?" he asked savagely.
"Any man who thought more of the girl than of himself," she answered
with passionate pathos in her tones, "any man who considered her
before his own reckless, ungovernable feelings, who would save her
heart from sorrow rather than gratify his anger. Any man who asks,
What is best for the woman I love? instead of What's my humor? what
will please me? Suppose you both had carried out your savage
impulses, and lay on this ground, wounded or dead, what would be
said at the house there about me? What would be your mother's fate,
Madison, that you might gratify a causeless spite? Have you no home,
Captain Maynard, no kindred who would always curse my name? If you
had died like the brave men who lie in yonder graves your friends
would ever speak your name proudly; but even I, all inexperienced,
know the world well enough to be only too sure, they would hang
their heads and say you flung away your life for a heartless girl
who was amusing herself at your expense.
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