hem. No
more of that! He had lost nothing but a moment's illusion.

The ideal remained; the worship, the gratitude. How much she had been
to him! Rarely a day--very rarely a day--that the thought of Irene did
not warm his heart and exalt his ambition. He had yielded to the
fleshly impulse, and the measure of his lapse was the sincerity of that
nobler desire; he had not the excuse of the ordinary man, nor ever
tried to allay his conscience with facile views of life. What times
innumerable had he murmured her name, until it was become to him the
only woman's name that sounded in truth womanly--all others cold to his
imagination. What long evenings had he passed, yonder by the Black Sea,
content merely to dream of Irene Derwent; how many a summer night had
he wandered in the acacia-planted streets of Odessa, about and about
the great square, with its trees, where stands the cathedral; how many
a time had his heart throbbed all but to bursting when he listened to
the music on the Boulevard, and felt so terribly alone--alone! Irene
was England. He knew nothing of the patriotism which is but shouted
politics; from his earliest years of intelligence he had learnt,
listening to his father, a contempt for that loud narrowness; but the
tongue which was Irene's, the landscape where shone Irene's
figure--these were dear to him for Irene's sake. He believed in his
heart of hearts that only the Northern Island could boast the perfect
woman--because he had found her there.

Should he talk of loss--he who had gained so unspeakably by an ideal
love through the hot years of his youth, who to the end of his life
would be made better by it? That were the basest ingratitude. Irene
owed him nothing, yet had enriched him beyond calculation. He did not
love her less; she was the same power in his life. This sinking of the
heart, this menace of gloom and rebellion, was treachery to his better
self. He fought manfully against it.

Circumstances were unfavourable to such a struggle. Work, absorption in
the day's duty, well and good; but when work and duty led one into the
City of London! At first, he had found excitement in the starting of
his business; so much had to be done, so many points to be debated and
decided, so many people to be seen and conversed with, contended with;
it was all an exhilarating effort of mind and body. He felt the joy of
combat; sped to the City like any other man, intent on holding his own
amid the furious welter,