Leonard Merrick

“ Quite clearly I can see the room I lived in, fifteen years ago, with Dora! How cheap it was—wonderful! But with its refinements too; she could make such pretty things. Why did I not marry Dora? My parents would have been horrified if I had married a Christian—I cannot think of any other reason. ”

“ Yet it is true—and I can't help it—that in the child who reminds me of the dead so vividly my wife has a rival here in our home. It is the child that she consented to adopt who reminds me innocently that my wife is fat and silly; it is Lucy, who, as I watch her at her lessons, recalls to me the thoughtful face of the girl I used to love. And I regret! Ah, God forgive me, I regret with all my soul, and would be young once more, with Dora by my side ”