He had cooled, and cool it was idle for him to tell himself that Lord Ostermore, by his heartless allusion to the crime of his early years, had proved himself worthy of nothing but the pit Mr.Caryll had been sent to dig for him.

There were moments when he sought to compel himself so to think, to steel himself against all other considerations.

But it was idle.

The reflection that the task before him was unnatural came ever to revolt him.

To gain ease, the most that he could do--and he had the faculty of it developed in a preternatural degree--was to put the business from him for the time, endeavor to forget it.