Another more practical question pressed.
Did he dare to return now to Cloud Island, and watch over Josephine in the shock which she must sustain, and find out if she would discover the truth concerning O'Shea?
After a good while he answered the question: No; he did not dare to return, knowing what he did and his own cowardly share in it.

He could not face Josephine, and, lonely as she was, she did not need him; she had her prayers, her angels, her heaven.
Perhaps Time, the proverbial healer of all wounds, would wash the sense of guilt from his soul, and then he could come back and speak to Josephine concerning this new freedom of hers.

Then he remembered that some say that for the wound of guilt Time no healing art.

Could he find, then, other shrift?
He did not know.

He longed for it sorely, because he longed to feel fit to return to Josephine.