Did she love him enough to forgive a sin committed chiefly for her sake?
In the depths of his own soul the answer was no.
He stole down stairs again, and passed out by a side door into the streets.

It was raining heavily, and the wind was moaning through the deserted thoroughfares, where no sound of footsteps could be heard.
Behind him lay his pleasant home, never so precious as at this moment.
He looked up at the windows, the two faintly lit up, and that other darkened window of the chamber he had not dared to enter.

In a few hours those women, so unutterably dear to him, would be overwhelmed by the great sorrow he had prepared for them; those children would become the inheritors of his sin.

He looked back longingly and despairingly, as if there only was life for him; and then hurrying on swiftly he lost sight of the old home, and felt as a drowning wretch at sea feels when the heaving billows hide from him the glimmering light of the beacon, which, however, can offer no harbor of refuge to him..