Till then, however close our attachment, we were, in knowledge of each other's character and thought, almost as strangers.

While her painful timidity had in some degree worn off, her anxious and watchful deference was even more marked than before.

True to the strange ideas derived chiefly from her training, partly from her own natural character, she was the more careful to avoid giving the slightest pain or displeasure, as she ceased to fear that either would be immediately and intentionally visited upon herself.

She evidently thought that on this account there was the greater danger lest a series of trivial annoyances, unnoticed at the time, might cool the affection she valued so highly.

Diffident of her own charms, she knew how little hold the women of her race generally have on the hearts of men after the first fever of passion has cooled.