No; he was not a generous man,--a very ungenerous man.

And yet, during all this time, he thought that he was guided by principle.

"It will be best that I should be honest with her," he said to himself.

And then he told himself, scores of times, that when making his offer he had expected, and had a right to expect, that she would not be penniless.

Under those circumstances he had done the best he could for her--offering her his heart honestly, with a quick readiness to make her his own at the earliest day that she might think possible.