But was it at all within the bounds of probability that a woman who, over and above her own attainments, had been accustomed to those of a cultivated professional man, could ever be the wife of such as he?
Since the date of his rejection he had almost grown to see the reasonableness of that treatment.

He had said to himself again and again that her father was right; that the poor ceorl, Giles Winterborne, would never have been able to make such a dainty girl happy.

Yet, now that she had stood in a position farther removed from his own than at first, he was asked to prepare to woo her.

He was full of doubt.
Nevertheless, it was not in him to show backwardness.

To act so promptly as Melbury desired him to act seemed, indeed, scarcely wise, because of the uncertainty of events.