It made him a coward.

Through his mind and heart swept the memory of Ellen Jorth, her beauty and charm, her boldness and pathos, her shame and her degradation.

And the sweetness of her outweighed the boldness.

And the mystery of her arrayed itself in unquenchable protest against her acknowledged shame.
Jean lifted his face to the heavens, to the pitiless white stars, to the infinite depths of the dark-blue sky.

He could sense the fact of his being an atom in the universe of nature.