It was not a fascination in the true sense of the word, nor was it the passionate sentiment of the young schoolmistress.

She saw him sway, rest his hands on the steps and then turn with difficulty and sit down; and she did not ask herself if he were suffering.

She gazed at him, but was more absorbed in herself than in him, absorbed in a gradual change which was taking place within her, and which was making her different, making her irrecognisable to herself; a still confused and blind sense of immense truth, which was being borne in upon her, in mysterious ways, and which strained painfully at the innermost fibres of her heart.

Her brother-in-law's religious arguments might have troubled her mind, but they had never touched her heart.

Why was it touched now?
And how?
What had that pale, emaciated man said, after all?
Ah I but the look, the voice, the-what else?
Something it was impossible to grasp.