This resolution had formed itself instantaneously in his mind, and it never occurred to him, either then or later, that he could have done anything else in the world.

It certainly did not occur to him that he was doing anything especially praiseworthy in sacrificing his love to its object, in leaving Margaret for a couple of months, and enduring all that such a separation meant, in order to serve her interests more effectually.

He knew well enough what he was undertaking--the sleepless nights, the endless days, the soul-compelling heaviness of solitude, and the deadly sinking at the heart, all which he should endure daily for sixty days--he could not be back before that.

He knew it all, for he had suffered it all, during those four and twenty hours on the yacht that followed his first wild speech of love.

But Claudius's was a knightly soul, and when he served he served wholly, without reservation.