He had to confess that there was even an element of relief in the
sensations the event had caused in him. He had been saved from
himself; a position of affairs which had become intolerable was got
rid of without his own exertion. Whatever might now happen, the old
state of things would never be restored. There was relief and
pleasure in the thought of such a change, were it only for the sake
of the opening up of new vistas of observation and experience. Such
thoughts as these indicated very strongly the course which Waymark's
development was taking, and he profited by them to obtain a clearer
understanding of himself.
The proceedings in the court that morning were brief. Waymark, from
his seat on the public benches, saw Ida brought forward, and heard
her remanded for a week. She did not see him; seemed, indeed, to see
nothing. The aspect of her standing there in the dock, her head
bowed under intolerable shame, made a tumult within him. Blind anger
and scorn against all who surrounded her were his first emotions;
there was something of martyrdom in her position; she, essentially
so good and noble, to be dragged here before these narrow-natured
slaves of an ignoble social order, in all probability to be
condemned to miserable torment by men who had no shadow of
understanding of her character and her circumstances.
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