A Painful Case

He turned back the way he had come, the rhythm of the engine pounding in his ears. He began to doubt the reality of what memory told him. He halted under a tree and allowed the rhythm to die away. He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone.

Why had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces.

No one wanted him; he was outcast from life's feast.