He had received, as he owned, more than he could reasonably have expected, good measure pressed down and running over.

The limit was now reached.

He should practise restraint--leave the whole, affair where it stood.

But the effect of this darkness, and of drifting, drifting, over the black water in the fine soundless rain, with its illusion of permanence, and of the extinction of to-morrow--and the retributions and adjustments in which to-morrow is so frequently and inconveniently fertile--enervated him, rendering him a comparatively easy prey to impulse, should impulse chance to be stirred by some adventitious circumstance.

The Devil, it may be presumed, is very much on the watch for such weakenings of moral fibre, ready to pounce, at the very shortest notice, and make unholy play with them! To Faircloth's ruminative eyes, the paleness in the stern of the boat, indicating Damaris Verity's drooping figure, altered slightly in outline.
Whereupon he shipped the oars skillfully and quietly, and going aft knelt down in front of her.