Some feeling of maidenly reserve had led her to take this step.

She never asked herself why or wherefore; she only felt that it would be good for her to be alone, and the need had been so urgent that she forgot her father's usual good-night kiss and blessing.
Lugur did not call her, but he felt the omission keenly.

It was the first change; he knew that it prefigured many greater ones, and he was for the hour stunned by the suddenness of the sorrow he had to face.

But Lugur had a stout heart, a heart made strong and sure by many sufferings and by one love.
He sat motionless for an hour or more; his life was concentered in thought, and thought does not always require physical movement.

Indeed, intense thought on any question is, as a rule, still and steady as a rock.