Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/266

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A QUESTION OF DUTY.
261

secution would have been to himself, and, therefore, measuring it by this personal standard, it assumed proportions that he felt to be hopelessly beyond his power to surmount. Every day he grew; more and more miserable and apathetic. He shrunk from this adverse human contact, and yet felt obliged to meet it. It was an actual martyrdom to the sensitive man, and its effect upon Sarah was equally painful and distressing. Before a month had passed she felt that the ordeal was too cruel, and that something must be done to make it unnecessary, for Steve was really in a greater danger than ever he had been before, the danger of a hopeless, subjugated heart.