He knew that he could also hold them by right of conquest, too, for that year a knowledge of his strength had been forced upon him.

Still, from something he had seen in the eyes of a girl and grasped in the words of a white-haired lady, he realized that there is a limit beyond which man's ambition may not venture, and a right before which even that of possession must bow.
It had been shown him plainly that no man of his own devices can make the wheat grow, and standing beside it in the creeping dusk he felt in a vague, half-pagan fashion that there was, somewhere behind what appeared the chaotic chances of life, a scheme of order and justice immutable, which would in due time crush the too presumptuous human atom who opposed himself to it.

Regret and rebellion were, it seemed, equally futile, and he must go out from Silverdale before retribution overtook him.

He had done wrong, and, though he had made what reparation he could, knew that he would carry his punishment with him.
The house was almost dark when he reached it, and as he went in, his cook signed to him.

"There's a man in here waiting for you," he said.
"He doesn't seem in any way friendly or civil." Winston nodded as he went on, wondering with a grim expectancy whether Courthorne had returned again.