The boundless pain and distress in her poor eyes—it was that which drew his soul naked up into the light. Away went all that he had thought and determined—he knew right well that they were great and important things that now dropped from his mind, but he had not the power to hold them fast. He was left with the last, the inmost cruel certainty—that she was flesh of his flesh and life of his life, and this could never be otherwise, were she never so shamefully maltreated and broken.
