There were other long-standing accounts which he had paid in full during these three years, paid in the restless weariness and disappointment that underlay his life, in the loneliness in which he lived, in his contempt for all his former pursuits, which had left him at first devoid of any pursuits at all.
He had had, as was natural, very little happiness in his life, but all the bitterness of all his bitter past seemed as nothing to the agony of this moment.

He had loved Evelyn with his imagination, but he loved Ruth with his whole heart and soul, and--he had lost her.
The night was far advanced.

The dawn was already making faint bars over the tops of the shutters, was looking in at him as he sat motionless by his dim lamp and his dead fire.

And, in spite of the growing dawn, it was a dark hour..