What more can a man do than lay down his life for a friend?
Perhaps he can do a little more for a loved woman: marry somebody else.
Deep down in his heart he loved Zora.

Deep down in his heart, too, dwelt the idiot hope that the miracle of miracles might one day happen.

He loved the hope with a mother's passionate love for a deformed and imbecile child, knowing it unfit to live among the other healthy hopes of his conceiving.
At any rate, he was free to bring her his daily tale of worship, to glean a look of kindness from her clear eyes.

This was his happiness.

For her sake he would sacrifice it.