to do what the law could not or would not do, and set free from tyranny of brute force those poor tillers of the soil who could not help themselves. The very folly and madness of that utter disregard of peril moved her to reverence; she who had all her life been environed with the cool, calm, cautious, and circumspect customs of the world.
For one moment it seemed to her possible to renounce everything for his sake. For one moment her own passion for the mere gauds and pomps and possessions of the world looked to her beside the simplicity and self-sacrifice of his own life so poor and mean that she shrank from it in disgust. For one moment she said to herself—"Love was enough."
He had been ready to give up his life for a few poor labourers, who had no other claim on him than that they lived upon the soil he owned; and she who loved him had not the courage to renounce mere worldly riches for his sake. She hated herself, and yet she could not change herself. She cared for power, for supremacy, for indulgence, for extravagance;
