He had his attractive qualities.

He was a man who might be loved,--but he was hardly a man for love.

The young Lady Carbury had understood her position and had determined to do her duty.

She had resolved before she went to the altar that she would never allow herself to flirt and she had never flirted.

For fifteen years things had gone tolerably well with her,--by which it is intended that the reader should understand that they had so gone that she had been able to tolerate them.