The clear enunciation of her words seemed to pierce through the baffling noises of the night as a ray of light pierces through darkness, albeit that there was excitement in her tones, and her speech was, interspersed with breathless pauses.
"I have been rude; but you insisted upon my rudeness, now you are offended by it.

So be it--let me say something else! I don't much believe now in all the sentiment that used to seem so noble to me about forgetting oneself.

No thoughtful person _can_ forget himself, and no candid person says he has done it.

What we need is to think _more_ of ourselves--to think so much of ourselves that all aims but the highest are beneath us--are impossible to our own dignity.

What we chiefly need is ambition." She stopped to take breath.