If I could do her the smallest good by stopping I wouldn't complain.

But I can't see her, can't go near her, can't do her the least bit of good in the world--I would be better out of the way, in fact--and yet I have to stick here, fretting myself into a fever.

If I didn't do it I should be an unfeeling, heartless, disgusting brute.

See?
That's the way they reason." Presently, under the soothing influence of the cigar, he settled down into some semblance of his former self.

He talked almost as well as usual, touching on such light local topics as Miss Batchelor and the new Parish Council; he told Mrs.Nevill's barrister story with variations, and that landed him in a discussion of his plans.