She seemed to him at once the dignity and the charity of his life.

She had remained in his eyes the one to whom he could always return, the assured friend of moments of trial, the haven after the tempest, the moral peace when he was weary of the troubles of passion.

What life would he lead when she was gone?
For she would go! Her resolution was irrevocable.

All dropped from his side at once.

The mistress, to whom he had sacrificed the noblest and most loving heart, he had lost under circumstances as abject as their two years of passion had been dishonorable.