To be asked to one of them was considered a compliment, even by men who are asked almost everywhere.
With such advantages of person, intelligence and surroundings at her command, Jane did not lack for opportunities of settling herself in life.

To my knowledge she had three offers in one season, the last of them from perhaps the best and most satisfactory _parti_ in England.

But to my great and ever-increasing dismay, one after another she refused them all.

The first two disappointments I bore, but on the third occasion I remonstrated.

She listened quite quietly, then said: "I am very sorry to vex you, father dear, but to marry a man whom I do not care about is just the one thing I can't do, even for your sake." "But surely, Jane," I urged, "a father should have some voice in such a matter." "I think he has a right to say whom his daughter shall not marry, perhaps, but not whom she shall marry." "Then, at least," I said, catching at this straw, "will you promise that you won't become engaged to any one without my consent ?" Jane hesitated a little, and then answered: "What is the use of talking of such a thing, father, as I have never seen anybody to whom I wish to become engaged?
But, if you like, I will promise you that if I should chance to see any one and you don't approve of him, I will not become engaged to him for three years, by the end of which time he would probably cease to wish to become engaged to me.