For some time he stood watching her as she lay there, unconscious and helpless, and very pretty.

He was alone with her, and she was absolutely without defense.
Suddenly the animal in the man stirred and woke; the evil instincts that in him were so close to the surface leaped to life, shouting and clamoring.
It was a crisis--a crisis that had arisen all in an instant; a crisis for which he was totally unprepared.

Blindly, and without knowing why, McTeague fought against it, moved by an unreasoned instinct of resistance.

Within him, a certain second self, another better McTeague rose with the brute; both were strong, with the huge crude strength of the man himself.

The two were at grapples.