What would his wife Honoria say when she heard the news, he wondered?
Perhaps it would shock her into some show of feeling.

And Effie, his dear little six-year-old daughter?
Well, thank God, she was too young to feel his loss for long.
By the time that she was a woman she would almost have forgotten that she ever had a father.

But how would she get on without him to guide her?
Her mother did not love children, and a growing girl would continually remind her of her growing years.

He could not tell; he could only hope for the best.
And for himself! What would become of him after the short sharp struggle for life?
Should he find endless sleep, or what?
He was a Christian, and his life had not been worse than that of other men.

Indeed, though he would have been the last to think it, he had some redeeming virtues.