"Oh, please go on"-- and she leaned back against her pillow, but she did not seek to draw away her hand.
"There came a great grief, then, in the life of the boy who was now a grown man.

His sister brought disgrace upon herself, and died under extremely distressful circumstances, into which I need not enter here; and for a while these things darkened and embittered his life." He paused a moment, and gazed into the fire, a look of deep sorrow and regret on his sharply-cut face, and Ethelrida unconsciously allowed her slim fingers to tighten in his grasp.

And when he felt this gentle sympathy, he stroked her hand.
"The man was very hard then, sweet lady," he went on.

"He regrets it now, deeply.

The pure angel, who at this day rules his life, with her soft eyes of divine mercy and gentleness, has taught him many lessons; and it will be his everlasting regret that he was hard then.