In the bitter knowledge she had confronted him unrelentingly.

A spoiled child--an unreasoning feminine egoist.
But now that moment, with its instructive and primitive emotions, was passed by what seemed months--years--a century.

By a process of mind as swift as it was subtle, the child had grown into a woman--the egoist had become conscious of another existence.

With the entrance of Bale-Corphew--with the sound of her own denunciation upon his lips--a new feeling had awakened within her--a feeling stronger than humiliation, stronger than pride.

It had risen, blinding and dazzling her, as a great light might blind and dazzle; and she stood glorified and exalted within its radiance.
As the door had closed upon her second visitor, a long sobbing sigh of excitement, of tumultuous joy and fear shook her from head to foot; she involuntarily drew her figure to its full height, and covered her face with both hands, as though to ward off the light that lay across her world.
But the great moment of joy and comprehension could not last; other and more insistent factors were at work within her mind--claiming, even demanding attention.