Yet she could not take him with her eyelids.

She had tried.
"You are horribly grave," she said.
"The situation," he replied, "is horribly grave." Etta looked up at him as he stood before her, and the lamp-light, falling on the perfect oval of her face, showed it to be white and drawn.
"Princess," said the man, "there are in the lives of some of us times when we cease to be men and women, and become mere human beings.

There are times, I mean, when the thousand influences of sex die at one blow of fate.

This is such a time.

We must forget that you are a beautiful woman; I verily believe that there is none more beautiful in the world.
I once knew one whom I admired more, but that was not because she was more beautiful.