The better part of my nature was crushed out, and flung away with you, Margret.

I cried for it,--I wanted help to be a better, purer man.

I need it now.

And so," he said, with a smile that hurt her more than tears, "I came to my good angel, to tell her I had sinned and repented, that I had made humble plans for the future, and ask her---- God knows what I would have asked her then! She had forgotten me,--she had another work to do!" She wrung her hands with a helpless cry.

Holmes went to the window: the dull waste of snow looked to him as hopeless and vague as his own life.
"I have deserved it," he muttered to himself.