She seems to be high-minded, and I believe she loves you." Arthur looked relieved, though Adelaide was too honest to have been able to make her tone as emphatic as her words.

Yes, Janet was indeed high-minded, he said to himself; did indeed love him.

Her high-mindedness and the angel purity of her love had often made him uneasy, not to say uncomfortable.

He hated to be at the trouble of pretenses; but Janet, living on a far higher plan than he, had simply compelled it.

To let her see his human weaknesses, to let her suspect that he was not as high-minded as she told him he was, to strip from himself the saintly robes and the diadem with which she had adorned him--well, he would put it off until after marriage, he had always told himself, and perhaps by that time he would feel a little less like a sinner profaning a sanctuary when he kissed her.