Was it unnatural ?" Her voice became choked with tears.

She paused for a moment or two, trying to regain some sort of composure.

She looked appealingly at him, almost as if he were her judge.

He had allowed her to speak on in her own vehement, impassioned way, offering no comment, no word of sympathy: and now, while she paused, trying to swallow down the hot tears that gushed to her eyes, he waited, impassive and still.

The dim, grey light of early dawn seemed to make his tall form look taller and more rigid.
The lazy, good-natured face looked strangely altered.