A divorce! Thus close, the word was paralyzing, so utterly at variance with all the principles that had hitherto guided his life. Its lack of compromise appalled him; he felt like the captain of a ship, going to the side of his vessel, and, with his own hands throwing over the most precious of his bales. This jettisoning of his property with his own hand seemed uncanny to Soames. It would injure him in his profession: He would have to get rid of the house at Robin Hill, on which he had spent so much money, so much anticipation⁠—and at a sacrifice. And she! She would no longer belong to him, not even in name! She would pass out of his life, and he⁠—he should never see her again!

He traversed in the cab the length of a street without getting beyond the thought that he should never see her again!