Daniel Villines

“[Lieutenant Fitzpatrick] would not have dared to make a gesture of reconciliation towards his friend [Seaman Warrington], nor speak the word that would have launched them...on one of the old conversations. Neither could Warrington have made the gesture or spoken the word...The very stress between them, largely monopolizing his emotions and reflections, was, in its polarization, a misery rich in significance, as rich, in that sense, as their harmony had been. Like the officer, if he could not restore the harmony, he clung to the conflict that still bound them. However, the striking think was not that they clung to the only bond that still seemed possible to them; but that they both actually seemed to be striving to protect and preserve, surviving carefully and with a kind of cold desperation, the framework of their quarrel as such.”
― Marcus Goodrich, Delilah