Dorian had not found Carlia Duke; instead, he had found something which appeared to him to be the end of all things.

Had he found her dead, in her virginal purity, he could have placed her, with Mildred, safely away in his heart and his hopes; but this!...

What more could he now do?
That he did not take the first train home was because he was benumbed into inactivity.
The young man had never before experienced such suffering of spirit.

The leaden weight on his heart seemed to be crushing, not only his physical being, but his spirit also into the depths of despair.

As far back in his boyhood as he could remember, he had been taught the enormity of sexual sin, until it had become second nature for him to think of it as something very improbable, if not impossible, as pertaining to himself.
And yet, here it was, right at the very door of his heart, casting its evil shadow into the most sacred precincts of his being.