Gabriel's Pity for Aunt Julia

Gabriel held her hand for a moment longer, irresolutely, and then shy of intruding on her grief, let it fall gently. He watched her while she slept as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. As he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange, friendly pity for her entered his soul. She too would soon be a shade with the shade of Patrick Morgan and his horse.