"I'm going now," he said in a low voice. "I shan't come back till you have gone."
She heard him cross the room, his steps in the veranda. Outside, in the summer dark, a figure came to meet him. French drew Roger's arm into his, and the two walked away. The shadows of the wooded lane received them.
A woman came quickly into the room.
Elsie French looked down upon the sobbing Daphne, her own eyes full of tears, her hands clasped.
"Oh, you poor thing!" she said, under her breath. "You poor thing!" And she knelt down beside her and folded her arms round her.
So from the same heart that had felt a passionate pity for the victim, compassion flowed out on the transgressor. For where others feel the tragedy of suffering, the pure in heart realize with an infinitely sharper pain the tragedy of guilt.
THE END
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Amiel's Journal (translated)
Miss Bretherton
Robert Elsmere
The History of David Grieve
Marcella
Sir George Tressady
Helbeck of Bannisdale
Eleanor
Lady Rose's Daughter
The Marriage of William Ashe
Agatha
Fenwick's Career
Milly and Olly
The Testing of Diana Mallory