The shock went deep; so deep that it made no violent sign on the surface.

He spread the letter out before him.

The candle showed his face gone grey and knotted with misery.

He could bear all the rest: fight, do all that was right to the coming mother of his child; but this made him sick and dizzy.

He felt as he did when he waked up in Labrador, with his wife's dead lips pressed to his neck.