One touched his face, the others hit his coat, and they scattered into the mud.

‘And take your rings,’ she said, ‘and go and buy yourself a female elsewhere — there are plenty to be had, who will be quite glad to share your spiritual mess, — or to have your physical mess, and leave your spiritual mess to Hermione.’

With which she walked away, desultorily, up the road. He stood motionless, watching her sullen, rather ugly walk. She was sullenly picking and pulling at the twigs of the hedge as she passed. She grew smaller, she seemed to pass out of his sight. A darkness came over his mind. Only a small, mechanical speck of consciousness hovered near him.

He felt tired and weak. Yet also he was relieved.