An immense happiness overpowered him.

Actual tears came to his eyes.

Without knowing why, he was not ashamed of it.

This poor, crude fellow, harsh, hard, narrow, with his unlovely nature, his fierce truculency, his selfishness, his obstinacy, abruptly knew that all the sweetness of life, all the great vivifying eternal force of humanity had burst into life within him.
The little seed, long since planted, gathering strength quietly, had at last germinated.
Then as the realisation of this hardened into certainty, in the growing light of the new day that had just dawned for him, Annixter uttered a cry.

Now at length, he knew the meaning of it all.
"Why--I--I, I LOVE her," he cried.