So things went on up to the night at which Montague met Henrietta at Madame Melmotte's ball.

The reader should also be informed that there had been already a former love affair in the young life of Paul Montague.

There had been, and indeed there still was, a widow, one Mrs Hurtle, whom he had been desperately anxious to marry before his second journey to California;-- but the marriage had been prevented by the interference of Roger Carbury..