"I can't tell you how inexpressibly mean the whole thing seems to me.

Goodnight." And, turning rather quickly, he went out.
His mind was confused and his heart torn.

He thought of Helen Bellew as of the woman dearest to him in the coils of a great slimy serpent, and the knowledge that each man and woman unhappily married was, whether by his own, his partner's, or by no fault at all, in the same embrace, afforded him no comfort whatsoever.

It was long before he left the windy streets to go to his home..