`` There are -- plenty -- without you . '' `` That is n't the point , Rilla-my-Rilla . I 'm going for my own sake -- to save my soul alive . It will shrink to something small and mean and lifeless if I do n't go . That would be worse than blindness or mutilation or any of the things I 've feared . '' `` You may -- be -- killed , '' Rilla hated herself for saying it -- she knew it was a weak and cowardly thing to say -- but she had rather gone to pieces after the tension of the evening . '' ` Comes he slow or comes he fast It is but death who comes at last . ' '' quoted Walter . `` It 's not death I fear -- I told you that long ago . One can pay too high a price for mere life , little sister . There 's so much hideousness in this war -- I 've got to go and help wipe it out of the world . I 'm going to fight for the beauty of life , Rilla-my-Rilla -- that is my duty . There may be a higher duty , perhaps -- but that is mine . I owe life and Canada that , and I 've got to pay it . Rilla , tonight for the first time since Jem left I 've got back my self-respect . I could write poetry , '' Walter laughed . `` I 've never been able to write a line since last August . Tonight I 'm full of it . Little sister , be brave -- you were so plucky when Jem went . '' `` This -- is -- different , '' Rilla had to stop after every word to fight down a wild outburst of sobs .
`` I loved -- Jem -- XXXXX course -- but -- when -- he went -- away -- we thought -- the war -- would soon -- be over -- and you are -- everything to me , Walter . ''
at for if in of since than that to without