She could have held out, she felt, had it not been for the sound of those departing footsteps, running so blithely toward a lifetime of happiness.

Even as it was she made herself hold out.

Then a vague astonishment came to clear her mind.

There was no joy in the face of John Mark, only a deep and settled pain.
"You see," he said, with a smile of anguish, "I have done it.

I have bought the thing I love, and that, you know, is the last and deepest damnation.