It sounded in his ears as he descended the hill.

It came again and again to him as he was seated at his comfortable breakfast.

It rang in the chambers of his consciousness for hours, and only a firm and despotic will expelled it at last.

He knew the voice, and he never wished to hear it again.
What he had seen that morning, and what he had done, where he had been, and why he had gone, were secrets to which his wife and children were not admitted.

The relations between himself and his wife were not new in the world.