But I loved him none the more.

To my cripple's detested sensitiveness, as he stood over me, he loomed more than ever the hulking brute.

His semi-confessions and innuendoes exacerbated my feelings of distrust and repulsion.

And yet, at the same tune, I could not--nor did I try to--repress an immense pity for the man; perhaps less for the man than for the soul in pain.

At the back of his words some torment burned at red heat, remorselessly.