Since entering the room, he had not moved from the spot where he stood, and now, with his head again drooping, he seemed sunk in a reverie of the profoundest sadness.

But he heard, and he strove to believe.

A fortnight ago he would not have thought it possible for Walter Egremont to speak a word of which the sincerity would seem doubtful.

Since then he had spent days and nights such as sap the foundations of a man's moral being and shake convictions which appeared impregnable.

The catastrophe which had come upon him was proportionate in its effects to the immeasurable happiness which preceded it.