The expression of patient endurance which was habitual to it, and which Mercy knew so well, and found always so irresistibly appealing, settled again on all his features.

Without speaking, he drew his chair close to the hearth, and looked steadfastly into the fire.

Some minutes passed in silence.

Mercy felt the tears coming again into her eyes.

What was this intangible but inexorable thing which stood between this man's soul and hers?
She could not doubt that he loved her; she knew that her whole soul went out towards him with a love of which she had never before had even a conception.