And just so far he took an unmanly advantage of a weak young girl.

But the contract once made, truth and honor required its fulfillment.

At least, so said my aunt, to whom alone I confided my secret; and so said my stern convictions of duty." "So far from that," replied Mrs.De Lisle, "truth and honor required its non-fulfillment; for neither in truth nor in honor, could you take the marriage vows." The directness with which Mrs.De Lisle stated this position of the case, startled her auditor.
"Is it not so ?" was calmly asked.

"You are too much in the habit of looking below the surface of things, to regard the formula of marriage as an unmeaning array of words.

In their full signification, you could not utter the sentences you were required to speak--how then, as regarding truth and honor, could you pronounce them in that act of your life which, of all others, should have been most without guile?
I would have torn all such extorted promises into a thousand tatters, and scattered them to the winds! The dishonor of breaking them were nothing to the wrong of fulfillment.