His tenderness was the worst reproach of all.
Her sobs burst out without control.

She rose.

"No; rather forgive me," she tried to say, but her voice was choked and hardly audible; and she fled from the room, hurrying into her own, and fell down on the floor at the bedside.
Maurice waited for awhile, thinking she might come back.

He sat down near where her chair stood, and leaning both elbows on the table, tried to calm himself after the terrible excitement.

Lucia's tears and her silence had utterly disarmed him--he called himself a brute for having distressed her.