He did not expect ever to right himself in Alma's esteem, but he hoped some day to let her know that he had understood.

It seemed to him that it would be a good thing if she should find it out after his death.

He imagined her being touched by it under those circumstances.
VI.
In the morning it seemed to Beaton that he had done himself injustice.
When he uncovered his Judas and looked at it, he could not believe that the man who was capable of such work deserved the punishment Miss Leighton had inflicted upon him.

He still forgave her, but in the presence of a thing like that he could not help respecting himself; he believed that if she could see it she would be sorry that she had cut herself off from his acquaintance.

He carried this strain of conviction all through his syndicate letter, which he now took out of his desk and finished, with an increasing security of his opinions and a mounting severity in his judgments.