But as the stars pale and fade when the sun mounts the sky, so too were the lesser wrongs that marked his earthly pilgrimage of sin rendered pale or blotted into insignificance by the greater wrong he had done Ronald Marleigh--a wrong which was not ended yet, but whose completion Joseph was even then working to effect.

If only he could save Crispin even now in the eleventh hour; if by some means he could warn him not to repair to the sign of the Anchor in Thames Street.

His disordered mind took no account of the fact that in the time that was sped since Galliard's departure, the knight should already have reached London.
And so it came about that, consumed at once by the desire to make confession to whomsoever it might be, and the wish to attempt yet to avert the crowning evil of whose planning he was partly guilty inasmuch as he had tacitly consented to Joseph's schemes, Gregory called for his daughter.

She came readily enough, hoping for exactly that which was about to take place, yet fearing sorely that her hopes would suffer frustration, and that she would learn nothing from her father.
"Cynthia," he cried, in mingled dread and sorrow, "Cynthia, my child, I am about to die." She knew both from Stephen and from the leech that this was far from being his condition.

Nevertheless her filial piety was at that moment a touching sight.