in
Susan's spirit he thought of it as a reparation, to Eunice, perhaps to
Essie, but more certainly to an essence within himself. But immediately
he saw the futility of such a course; the inexorable logic of existence
could not be so easily placated, its rhyming of cause and effect
defeated. All that he had told Susan Brundon recurred strengthened to an
immovable conviction. The thought of marrying Essie was intolerable,
farcical; to the woman herself it would mean utter boredom. Such a thing
must lead inevitably to a greater misfortune than any of the past.
Susan, in her resplendent ignorance of facts, failed to realize the
impossibility of what she upheld. No, no, it was out of the question.

He wondered if he had progressed in the other, his supreme, wish. And he
felt, with a stirring of blood, that he had. Susan cared for him; her
action had made that plain. That was a tremendous advantage; with
another he would have thought it conclusive; but not--not quite with
Susan Brundon. He had a deep regard for her determination, so surprising
in the midst of her fragility. Yet, if pity had not prevented him, this
afternoon, in her office, he might have forced her to a sharper
realization of a more earthly need, the ache for sympathy, consolation,
the imperative cry of self. That was his greatest difficulty, to
overcome her lifelong habit of thinking of others before herself. Such,
he knew, was the root of her appeal for Essie, rather than a cold,
dogmatic conception. Self-effacement.

At this a restive state followed; personally he had no confidence in the
sacrifice of individual aims and happiness. Any course of that sort, he
told himself, in the management of his practical affairs, would have
resulted in his failure. There were a hundred men in the country
plotting for his overthrow, anxious to take his position, scheming to
undersell him, to discover the secret of the quality of his iron rails.
Others he had deliberately, necessarily, ruined. No good would have been
served by his stepping aside, allowing smaller men to flourish and annoy
him, cut down his production by inconsiderable sales. He, and his
family, had built a great, yes, and beneficial, industry by ruthlessly
beating out a broad and broader way for their progress. It was needful
to gaze fixedly at the end desirable and move in the straightest line
possible.

Susan stopped by the way. A thousand little acts of alleviation, at
best temporary, interrupted h