Earlier in the day he had come to a pause in the making of these additions, and, after one or two vain efforts to proceed, had laid down his pen, taken his hat, and gone to see the unlucky apothecary.

Now he took up the broken thread.

To come to a decision; that was the task which forced from him his look of distress.

He drew his face slowly through his palms, set his lips, cast up his eyes, knit his knuckles, and then opened and struck his palms together, as if to say: "Now, come; let me make up my mind." There may be men who take every moral height at a dash; but to the most of us there must come moments when our wills can but just rise and walk in their sleep.

Those who in such moments wait for clear views find, when the issue is past, that they were only yielding to the devil's chloroform.
Honore Grandissme bent his eyes upon the paper.