"There was nothing I could ever do for him in life; I will do what I can now." He went off, and Rowland stayed there alone.

He watched for seven long hours, and his vigil was forever memorable.

The most rational of men was for an hour the most passionate.

He reviled himself with transcendent bitterness, he accused himself of cruelty and injustice, he would have lain down there in Roderick's place to unsay the words that had yesterday driven him forth on his lonely ramble.

Roderick had been fond of saying that there are such things as necessary follies, and Rowland was now proving it.