But for the most part he was too completely conquered by his passion to do other than rejoice in it.

Possessed wholly by it, and full of an undoubting confidence that Claudia returned his love, or needed only to realize it fully to return it fully, he had silenced all opposition, and went forth to his wooing with an exultation and a triumph that no transitory self-judgments could greatly diminish.

Life lay before him, long and full and rich and sweet.

Let trouble be what it would, and right be what it might, life and love were in his own hands.

The picture of a man giving up all he thought worth having, driven in misery by a force he could not resist to seek a remedy that he despaired of gaining--a remedy which, even if gained, would bring him nothing but fresh pain--this picture, over which Eugene was mourning in honest and perplexed friendship, never took form as a true presentment of himself to the man it was supposed to embody.