For it was with Valencia as with all women; in this common fault of frivolity, as in most others, the men rather than they are to blame.

Valencia had cultivated in herself those qualities which she saw admired by the men whom she met, and some one of whom, of course, she meant to marry; and as their female ideal was a butterfly ideal, a butterfly she became.

But beneath all lay, deep and strong, the woman's love of nobleness and wisdom, the woman's longing to learn and to be led, which has shown itself in every age in so many a fantastic and even ugly shape, and which is their real excuse for the flirting with, "geniuses," casting themselves at the feet of directors; which had tempted her to coquette with Elsley, and was now bringing her into "undesirable" intimacy with the poor curate.
She had heard that day, with some sorrow, his announcement that he wished to be gone; but as he did not refer to it again, she left the thought alone, and all but forgot it.

The subject, however, was renewed about a week afterwards.

"When you return to Aberalva," she had said, in reference to some commission.
"I shall never return to Aberalva." "Not return ?" "No; I have already resigned the curacy.