Then came the bitter disappointment in his own son.

But since he had suffered his son to die in his sins, reaping the full harvest of his transgressions, he had felt that any forgiveness shown to other offenders would be a cruel injustice to him.

Yet as Roland's passport and the children's photographs lay before him on his office desk--the same desk at which Roland was sitting but a few months ago, a man in the full vigor of life, with an apparently prosperous and happy future lying before him--Mr.Clifford for a moment or two yielded to the vain wish that Roland had thrown himself on his mercy.

Yet his conscience told him that he would have refused to show him mercy, and his regret was mingled with a tinge of remorse.
His first care was to prevent the intelligence reaching Felicita by means of the newspapers, and he sent immediately for Phebe Marlowe to accompany him to the sea-side, in order to break the news to her.
Phebe's excessive grief astonished him, though she had so much natural control over herself, in her sympathy for others, as to relieve him of all anxiety on her account, and to keep Felicita's secret journey from being suspected.

But to Phebe, Roland's death was fraught with more tragic circumstances than any one else could conceive.