I began to feel extraordinarily small.
"Then the whole series of things began that simply smashed me up.
"First there was the prison business.

That came about in this way: "I had just begun to see that I was all wrong with the Major--that by giving way to my feelings about him (I don't mean that I ever showed it, but that was only because I thought it more dignified not to!), I was getting all wrong with regard to both him and myself, and that I must do something that my whole soul hated if it was to be of any use.

Then there came that minute in the barn, when I heard the police were after us, and that there was really no hope of escape.

The particular thing that settled me was Gertie.

I knew, somehow, that I couldn't let the Major go to prison while she was about.