I have tried to be angry with him; but there are some old ties that a man cannot break.

He has used me very ill, Marian; but he is still my friend." His voice broke a little as he uttered the old familiar name.

Yes, she was changed, cruelly changed, by that ordeal of six months' suffering.
The brightness of her beauty had quite faded; but there was something in the altered face that touched him more deeply than the old magic.

She was dearer to him, perhaps, in this hour than she had ever been yet.

Dearer to him, and yet divided from him utterly, now that he professed himself her husband's friend as well as her own.
Friendship, brotherly affection, those chastened sentiments which he had fancied had superseded all warmer feelings--where were they now?
By the passionate beating of his heart, by his eager longing to clasp that faded form to his breast, he knew that he loved her as dearly as on the day when she promised to be his wife; that he must love her with the same measure till the end of his existence.
"Thank God for that," Marian said gently; "thank God that you are still friends.