With Bell it was not so,--not so in absolute strictness.
Bell's story, too, must be told, but not on this page.

But before Crosbie had come among them, it was a thing fixed in her mind that such love as she had felt must be overcome and annihilated.

We may say that it had been overcome and annihilated, and that she would have sinned in no way had she listened to vows from this new Apollo.
It is almost sad to think that such a man might have had the love of either of such girls, but I fear that I must acknowledge that it was so.

Apollo, in the plenitude of his power, soon changed his mind; and before the end of his first visit, had transferred the distant homage which he was then paying from the elder to the younger sister.

He afterwards returned, as the squire's guest, for a longer sojourn among them, and at the end of the first month had already been accepted as Lily's future husband.
It was beautiful to see how Bell changed in her mood towards Crosbie and towards her sister as soon as she perceived how the affair was going.