At the same moment, the recollection recurred to him of the figure he had seen the night before, with the features of Miriam.

Was it she indeed?
Was this she?
To doubt the identity of the individual is to lose one's footing on the solid earth.

For the first time it occurred to him that this doubt might affect Miriam herself.

Was she obscurely conscious of two states of being in herself, and did she therefore fear to trust her own impulses?
But, again, love is the master-passion; its fire fuses all things, and gives them unity.

Would not this love that they confessed for each other burn away all that was abnormal and enigmatic, and leave only the unerring human heart, that knows its own and takes it?
These reflections passed through Freeman's mind in an instant of time.