He looked at it with a vague surprise to find it there.

His past was so utterly gone from him that the dwelling which belonged to it appeared to him incongruous standing there intact, neat, and cheerful in the sunshine of the hot afternoon.
The house was a pretty little structure all doors and windows, surrounded on all sides by the deep verandah supported on slender columns clothed in the green foliage of creepers, which also fringed the overhanging eaves of the high-pitched roof.

Slowly, Willems mounted the dozen steps that led to the verandah.

He paused at every step.

He must tell his wife.