"Ten times a better man," said Blake, Startingly.
"Max"
Katherine Cecil Thurston
It was impossible, he thought, but that some rumour of the struggle must have reached their ears and set on edge their curiosity; and now, in all the neighbouring houses, he divined them sitting motionless and with uplifted ear-solitary people, condemned to spend Christmas dwelling alone on memories of the past, and now Startingly recalled from that tender exercise; happy family parties struck into silence round the table, the mother still with raised finger-every degree and age and humour, but all, by their own hearths, prying and hearkening and weaving the rope that was to hang him.
"Stories By English Authors: Germany"
Various