But long before this he had recognised where his power over
her lay, by what means he had gained and by what he kept it; he had been
well aware that if she were still to be under his sway, the conquest must
be held by his achievements; he himself was as nothing beside them. Now,
as he lay, he was thinking what would happen. He also had heard the
doctor's story or enough of it to enable him to guess the purport of
their sentence on him; he was to live as an invalid, to abandon all his
ambitions, to throw away all that made people admire him or made him
something in the world's eyes and something great in hers. On these terms
and on these only life was offered to him now; if he refused, if he
defied nature, then he must go on with the sword ever hanging over him,
in the knowledge that it soon must fall. He told himself that, yet was
but half-convinced. Need it fall? With the first spurt of renewed
strength he raised that question and argued it, till he seemed able to
say 'It may fall,' rather than 'It must.'
What should be his course then? The world thought it had done with him.
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