The tall trees in the meadows stood up with a ghostly magnificence against them.

The whole scene was one of wondrous peace, and all, as far as he could see, was his.

But the man's eyes brooded over his acres with a dumb dissatisfaction, and when he turned from the window at last it was with a gesture of hopelessness.
"God help me for a fool!" he muttered between his teeth.

"If I went near her, they would kick me out by the back door." He began to undress with savage energy, and finally flung himself down on the old four-poster in which his father had lain before him, lying there motionless, with fixed and sleepless eyes, while the hours went by over his head.
Once--it was just before daybreak--he rose and went again to the open window that overlooked his prosperous valley.

A change had come over the face of it.