His nerves, his blood, responded to her beauty, as always; her hair, her features, the grace of the movements of that strong, slender, supple form, gave him the sense of her kinship with freedom and force and fire and all things keen and bright.

But stealthily and subtly it came to him, in this mood superinduced by his raiment, that in marrying her he was, after all, making sacrifices--she was ascending socially, he descending, condescending.

The feeling was far too vague to be at all conscious; it is, however, just those hazy, stealthy feelings that exert the most potent influence upon us.

When the strong are conquered is it not always by feeble forces from the dark and from behind?
"You have had good news," said Madelene, when they were in the dim daylight on the creeper-screened back porch.

For such was her generous interpretation of his expression of self-confidence and self-satisfaction.
"Not yet," he replied, looking away reflectively.