“Love could scatter my soul but up to these certain limits i could not imagine...!”

“Would that my mother could be author of my fate ...!”

“To save myself, I would try to summon up a vision of Mattie, but I could not see her. I could not imagine her. Some nights in the midst of this loneliness I swung among the scattered stars at the end of the thin thread of faith alone. And then I would wake up and be in awe to see the daylight coming and my old familiar workaday life taking shape again in the dear world. Coherence and clarity returned. I could imagine myself again. I could imagine Mattie Chatham. I could imagine Port William.”

“I'm fairly certain. I could be some ghastly hallucination, a figment of my own imagination”

“You have certainly burrowed your way into my heart- something I never imagined could happen.”

“I learned to accept my family for who they were and understand that, though they might be limited in certain areas, they all had good qualities that I could appreciate.”

“No i don't. I can't imagine how you, of all people, could be a burden to anyone. And i certainly don't think you're hard to love.”