And if he had known this step also was unconsciously caused by his own action in having his letter to Cheiron posted from London, it would have tortured him the more.

Another thought came, and he started forward in his chair.
Was it possible that she had written to him, and that the letter had got mislaid, among the prodigious quantity which accumulated in those first days of his unconsciousness?
Then he sank back again.

Even if this were so, it was too late now.
Everything was too late--from that awful night when he had become engaged to Cecilia Cricklander.
She had put the announcement into the paper not quite three weeks after the accident.

What could Halcyone have thought of him and his unspeakable baseness?
Now she could have nothing but loathing and contempt in her heart, wherever she was--and what right had he to have broken the beliefs and shattered the happiness of that pure, young soul?
He remembered his old master's words about a man's honor towards women.
It was true then that it was regulated, not by the woman's feelings or anguish, but by the man's inclination and whether or no the world should hold him responsible.

And he realized that this latter reason was the force which now prevented his breaking his engagement with Mrs.
Cricklander.