Mrs.Ryder had returned from the play and gone to bed, serenely oblivious of the drama in real life that had been enacted at home, the servants locked the house up for the night and still John Burkett Ryder walked the floor of his sanctum, and late into the small hours of the morning the watchman going his lonely rounds, saw a light in the library and the restless figure of his employer sharply silhouetted against the white blinds.
For the first time in his life John Ryder realized that there was something in the world beyond Self.

He had seen with his own eyes the sacrifice a daughter will make for the father she loves, and he asked himself what manner of a man that father could be to inspire such devotion in his child.

He probed into his own heart and conscience and reviewed his past career.

He had been phenomenally successful, but he had not been happy.

He had more money than he knew what to do with, but the pleasures of the domestic circle, which he saw other men enjoy, had been denied to him.