It was
as if he looked at the woman she would be twenty years from now.
Something in the sight of her, unbeautiful, enfeebled, her high spirit
dimmed, stirred in him a new, strange tenderness. His arm tightened
about her, his look lost its jealous ardor and wandering over her
blighted face, melted to a passionate concern. The appeal of her
beauty gave place to a stronger, more gripping appeal, never felt by
him before. She was no longer the creature he owned and ruled, no
longer the girl he had broken to an abject submission, but the woman he
loved. Uplifted in the sudden realization he felt the world widen
around him and saw himself another man. Then through the wonder of the
revelation came the thought of what he had done to win her. It
astonished him as a dart of pain would have done. Why had he
remembered it? Why at this rich moment should the past send out this
eerie reminder? He pushed it from him, and bending toward her murmured
a lover's phrase.
She opened her eyes and they met an expression in his that she had felt
the need of, hoped and waited for, an answer to what she had offered
and he had not seen or wanted.
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