He did not forget the man in the military prison or the wife that watched and waited and prayed and hoped.
But there was reason to hope: Lawrence was, from the beginning, a model prisoner, and the chaplain, who had lost, in the course of years, some of his confidence in repentance, began once more to believe that it was possible to regenerate a man's soul.

Most prisoners are a trifle too ready to accept the theory of the forgiveness of sins.

Not so Lawrence.
Often, he had paroxysms of despair, accusing himself wildly and doubting whether the good God could forgive so evil a sinner as he.

Sometimes, he would refuse to see his wife, declaring he was not fit for her to speak to; again, he would weep and ask for a sight of his child, now far away and in good hands.

All these things, and more, the chaplain knew, from long experience, meant that Lawrence's soul was struggling toward the light.