When she saw his face again in the dim light it was ghastly.
"There was a woman," he said, "for whom I was once responsible." He spoke wearily, head bent, resting the weight of one arm on the table against which she leaned.

"Do you understand ?" he asked.
"Yes.

You mean--Mrs.Ruthven." "I mean--her.

Afterward--when matters had altered--I came--home." He raised his head and looked about him in the darkness.
"Came home," he repeated, "no longer a man; the shadow of a man, with no hope, no outlook, no right to hope." He leaned heavily on the table, his arm rigid, looking down at the floor as he spoke.
"No right to hope.

Others told me that I still possessed that right.