Quote of the Week #2

I know that Quote of the Week hasn't been very weekly recently, but I'll try to be more regular.  This is one of my favorite quotes, that I reread when I thought I was reading David Copperfield.  Odd how that happened. :P

Marguerite bowed her head in silence. There was nothing more that she could say, no plea that she could urge. Indeed, she had understood, as he had begged her to understand. She understood that long ago he had mapped out the course of his life, and now that that course happened to lead up a Calvary of humiliation and of suffering he was not likely to turn back, even though, on the summit, death already was waiting and beckoning with no uncertain hand...

-El Dorado, chapter 29