Among these idlers--many of whom professed to have connections and interests with the Court--was one Humphrey Gould, a bachelor; a personage neither young nor old; neither good-looking nor positively plain.

Too steady-going to be 'a buck' (as fast and unmarried men were then called), he was an approximately fashionable man of a mild type.

This bachelor of thirty found his way to the village on the down: beheld Phyllis; made her father's acquaintance in order to make hers; and by some means or other she sufficiently inflamed his heart to lead him in that direction almost daily; till he became engaged to marry her.
As he was of an old local family, some of whose members were held in respect in the county, Phyllis, in bringing him to her feet, had accomplished what was considered a brilliant move for one in her constrained position.

How she had done it was not quite known to Phyllis herself.

In those days unequal marriages were regarded rather as a violation of the laws of nature than as a mere infringement of convention, the more modern view, and hence when Phyllis, of the watering- place bourgeoisie, was chosen by such a gentlemanly fellow, it was as if she were going to be taken to heaven, though perhaps the uninformed would have seen no great difference in the respective positions of the pair, the said Gould being as poor as a crow.
This pecuniary condition was his excuse--probably a true one--for postponing their union, and as the winter drew nearer, and the King departed for the season, Mr.Humphrey Gould set out for Bath, promising to return to Phyllis in a few weeks.