CHAPTER VIII.
Nicholas had gone straight home, neither speaking to nor seeing a soul.
From that hour a change seemed to come over him.

He had ever possessed a full share of self-consciousness; he had been readily piqued, had shown an unusual dread of being personally obtrusive.

But now his sense of self, as an individual provoking opinion, appeared to leave him.

When, therefore, after a day or two of seclusion, he came forth again, and the few acquaintances he had formed in the town condoled with him on what had happened, and pitied his haggard looks, he did not shrink from their regard as he would have done formerly, but took their sympathy as it would have been accepted by a child.
It reached his ears that Bellston had not appeared on the evening of his arrival at any hotel in the town or neighbourhood, or entered his wife's house at all.

'That's a part of his cruelty,' thought Nicholas.