He was alone in the whole locality, but he would not be less alone when the people returned.

They had their interests, their hopes and fears; he had nothing in common with any of them; he was alone with his pain, and his pain was just this, that he was alone.

Then he looked out further and further into the world from which he had come, into the world to which he must go back, and there also he saw himself to be alone.

He could not endure the thought of sharing the motions of his heart and brain with anyone but the one woman from whom he was wholly separated.

Time might make a difference; he was forced to remember that it is commonly said that time and absence abate all such attachments.