The face of the stream glowed like metal.

Why did she not come?
She believed him guilty from the mouth of another?
If so, there was something less for him to lose.

And now the sacrifice he had made did whisper a tale of mortal magnificence in his ears: feelings that were not his noblest stood up exalted.

He waited till the warm meadow-breath floating past told that the day had settled into heat, and then he waited no more, but quietly walked into the house with the strength of one who has conquered more than human scorn..