Squee! Oh, poor sad boys. I love them both very much and that would not help either of them.

This bit:

For another instant, though he knows it will do him no good, he considers proceeding in this effort anyway, seized by the compulsion to know what would happen, to see Henry's remaining control shaken. What else has he to lose?

(The answer that comes to him: everything else.)

makes me glee in my tiny black heart and sad for both of them.