After having left the house without seeing her in the morning, and then remaining from home all day, he had no hope of a kind reception.
"It's no use!" he muttered to himself, stopping suddenly, when within a square of his house.

"I can't meet Cara; she will look coldly at me, or frown, or speak cutting words; and I'm in no state of mind to bear any thing patiently just now.

I've done wrong, I know--very wrong; but I don't want it thrown into my face.

Oh, dear! I am beset within and without, behind and before and there is little hope for me." Overcoming this state of indecision, Ellis forced himself to go home.
On entering the presence of his wife, he made a strong effort to compose himself, and, when he met Cara, he spoke to her in a cheerful tone of voice.

How great an effort it cost him to do this, considering all the circumstances by which he was surrounded, the reader may easily imagine.