He may comfort himself with a sight of you, now and then." "I?
I comfort him ?" she exclaimed.
"By my soul I know it! What blunders Fortune makes in bestowing wives! Perchance your husband could have got on as well without so radiant a spouse, while my poor beauty-loving friend must needs be paired with a--Alas! there is too much marrying in this world!" There was a ring of genuine dejection in his voice and when she looked down at him, she saw that his eyes were larger and more sorrowful than she believed they could be.

He was hurting himself with his own deceit.

She looked away hastily, frightened at the sudden tenderness that his pathetic gaze had wakened in her.
"Alas!" he went on.

"The greatest sacrifice and the frequentest in this world of cross-purposes never gets into poetry.

I--" he halted a moment and looked away, "I ought to be sorry for her, too.