Perhaps they knew I could not have borne it.

I saw them creep closer together as though for comfort, as I got up and went away to my own room.
I was as glad as I could be of anything that Nora had gone a day or two earlier to nurse one of her uncle's children who was sick.

How could I have borne her presence about me?
To think I had saved her and had myself fallen into the net! And at least she had loved the man, incredible as it seemed, while I recoiled from him with loathing, because I loved another man with my whole heart and soul.
Something within me cried out that it would be a wicked marriage.

I fell on my knees by my bed, but I could not pray.

I felt numb and sick.