The woman looked closely at him, and Sim shrank under her steady gaze.

He was too far from Wythburn to be dogged by the suspicion of crime, yet his conscience tormented him.

Did all the world, then, know that Simeon Stagg would have been a murderer if he could--that in fact he had committed murder in his heart?
Could he never escape from the unspoken reproach?
No; not even on the heights of these solitary hills! The woman turned about and went into the house for the milk.

While she was gone, Sim stood at the gate.

In an instant the thought of his own necessities, his own distresses, gave place to the thought of Ralph Ray's.