I had beheld myself turning with a smile and a jest for one last view of the faces over which I, in my eumoirous career, had cast the largesse of happiness, and the vanishing with a gallant carelessness through the dusky portals.

Instead of that, here am I sneaking out of life by the back door, covering my eyes for very shame.

And glad?
Oh, God, how glad I am to slink out of it! I have indeed accomplished the thing which I set out to do.

I have severed a boy from the object of his passion.

What an achievement for the crowning glory of a lifetime! And at what a cost: one fellow-creature's life and another's reason.