And that thought had a thousand branches.

With Etta for his wife he might have been a different man.

One can never tell what the effect of an acquired desire may be.

One can only judge by analogy, and it would seem that it is a frustrated desire that makes the majority of villains.
But the news coming, thus too late, only served an evil purpose.

For in that flash of thought Claude de Chauxville saw Paul's secrets given to him; Paul's wealth meted out to him; Paul in exile; Paul dead in Siberia, where death comes easily; Paul's widow Claude de Chauxville's wife.