She is everything to you, and I feel how vast are your claims to her, compared to mine; and now you talk about going away, and coming to see her once every three months.

The idea is unnatural.

It is downright monstrous! "No, you and I understand each other at last; would to Heaven we had done so eight years back! I feel how much more nobly you acted in that unhappy matter than I did, and I esteem and honour you.

We are both getting on in life, we have one common love and interest, we stand in the same relation to the child, and I say, emphatically, that you have a right, and more than a right, to a half share in her.

You must go away no more, but remain here as my friend, and as joint guardian of the child.
"I will have no refusal, man," he went on, as the sergeant shook his head.