She was the most natural being, the freest from affectation, he had ever known.
As Erris Boyne talked to him, the memory of Sheila flooded his mind, and on the flood his senses swam like swans.

He had not her careful composure.

He was just as real, but he had the wilfulness of man.

She influenced him as no woman had ever yet done; but he saw no happy ending to the dream.

He was too poor to marry; he had no trade or profession; his father's affairs were in a bad way.