She tried to assure herself that she had acted rightly in resisting Wilfrid's proposal of an immediate marriage, yet she often wished her conscience had not spoken against it.

Wilfrid's own words, though merely prompted by his eagerness, ceaselessly came back to her--that it is ill to refuse a kindness offered by fate, so seldom kind.

The words were true enough, and their truth answered to that melancholy which, when her will was in abeyance, coloured her views of life.
But here at length was a letter from Wilfrid, a glad, encouraging letter.

His father had concluded that he was staying behind in England to be married, and evidently would not have disturbed himself greatly even if such had been the case.

All was going well.