I cannot bear it," she said, suddenly, and the storm which had been gathering so long, the clouds of which had darkened the sky for so many days, broke at last, with a strong and mighty wind of swift emotion which carried all before it.
It was a relief to give way, to let the tempest do its worst, and remain passive.

But when its force was spent at last, and it died away in gusts and flying showers, it left flood and wreckage and desolation behind.
When Ruth raised her head and looked about her, all her landmarks were gone.

There was a streaming glory in the heavens, but it shone on the ruin of all her little world below.

She loved Charles, and she knew it.
It seemed to her now as if, though she had not realized it, she must have loved him from the first; and with the knowledge came an overwhelming sense of utter misery that struck terror to her heart.

She understood at last the meaning of the weariness and the restless misgivings of these last weeks.