She did not know that the Captain's tone presaged a serious address; she did not know that the grand crisis of her life was close upon her.
Horatio Paget had determined upon making a sacrifice.

The doctor had told him that he owed his life to this devoted girl; and he would have been something less than man if he had not been moved with some grateful emotion.

He was grateful; and in the dreary hours of his slow recovery he had ample leisure for the contemplation of the woman to whom he owed so much, if his poor worthless life could indeed be much.
He saw that she was devoted to him; that she loved him more truly than he had ever been conscious of being loved before.

He saw too that she was beautiful.

To an ugly woman Captain Paget might have felt extremely grateful; but he could never have thought of an ugly woman as he thought of Mary Anne Kepp.