Under all her sympathy there was a faint human curiosity as to how people contrived to live through such crises.

If Pete were on the brink of death, she thought that she would go mad: but, then, she and Pete were not a middle-aged married couple; they were young, and new to love.
They all went into the drawing-room, Adelaide the calmest of the three.
"I wonder," she said, "if you two would mind dining a little earlier than usual.

I might sleep if I could get to bed early, and I must be at the hospital before eight." Mr.Lanley agreed a little more quickly than it was his habit to speak.
"O Mama, I think you're so marvelous!" said Mathilde, and touched at her own words, she burst into tears.

Her mother put her arm about her, and Mr.Lanley patted her shoulder--his sovereign care.
"There, there, my dear," he murmured, "you must not cry.

You know Vincent has a very good chance, a very good chance." The assumption that he hadn't was just the one Mathilde did not want to appear to make.