But this reflection was a piece of humility not yet in his particular estimate of his character, and he spurned it: an act of pride that drove his mind, for occupation, to contemplate hers; which speedily became an embrace of her character, until he was asking whether the woman he called wife and dared not clasp was one of those rarest, who can be idealized by virtue of their being known.

For the young man embracing a character loses grasp of his own, is plucked out of himself and passes into it, to see the creature he is with the other's eyes, and feel for the other as a very self.

Such is the privilege and the chastisement of the young.
Gower Woodseer's engagement with the girl Madge was a happier subject for expatiation and agreement.

Her deeper tones threw a light on Gower, and where she saw goodness, he could at least behold the natural philosopher practically philosophizing.
'The girl shall have a dowry from me,' he said; and the sum named was large.

Her head bent acknowledgingly; money had small weight with her now.