He saw a light steal across his friend's stern face.

He saw his eyes for a moment soften, the hard mouth relax, something incredible, transforming, shine, as it were, out of the man's soul in that moment of self-revelation.

It was gone like the momentary passing of a strange gleam of sunshine across a leaden sea, but those few seconds were sufficient.

Wilmore knew well enough what had happened.
"Oliver Hilditch's wife," Francis went on, after a few minutes' pause, "presents an enigma which at present I cannot hope to solve.

The fact that she received her husband back again, knowing what he was and what he was capable of, is inexplicable to me.