He thought, indeed, that he owed his dignity such a measure of forgetfulness.
But mysterious forces were at work within, and Nana began slowly to reconquer him.

First came thoughts of her, then fleshly cravings and finally a new set of exclusive, tender, well-nigh paternal feelings.
The abominable events attendant on their last interview were gradually effacing themselves.

He no longer saw Fontan; he no longer heard the stinging taunt about his wife's adultery with which Nana cast him out of doors.

These things were as words whose memory vanished.

Yet deep down in his heart there was a poignant smart which wrung him with such increasing pain that it nigh choked him.