stab of conscience

At that moment, I overheard Sidney ask, 'Who is that angel?' and the term, applied to one who was little less than a murderer, sharpened the stab of conscience.

He put her away with a stab of conscience—seated her on a chair and looked down at her.

She remembered her own words—"I am sure I shall hate him!"—not without a stab of conscience.

And no man, retaining from childhood the slightest memory of loving female attention, can wantonly desecrate the altar of motherhood without a latent stab of conscience.