How can it be wrong ?" He did not tell her that he also had got all he wanted; but his lack of enthusiasm in this respect did not surprise her, or at first even vex her.

She had always known him to be a man careful of his words,--knowing their value,--not speaking with hurried rashness as would her dear cousin Will.

And she doubted whether, after all, such hurried words mean as much as words which are slower and calmer.
After all his heat in love and consequent disappointment, Will Belton had left her apparently well contented.

His fervour had been short-lived.

She loved her cousin dearly, and was so very glad that his fervour had been short-lived! "When you asked me, I could but tell you the truth," she said, smiling at him.
The truth is very well, but he would have liked it better had the truth come to him by slower degrees.