She was about to offer to lend Mr.Charlton fifty dollars of her own.

But her quick pride kept her back, and, besides, fifty dollars was not half-enough.

She said she thought there must be some way of raising the money.

Then, as if afraid she had been too cordial and had laid her motives open to suspicion in speaking thus to Charlton, she drew herself up and bade him good-night with stiff politeness, leaving him half-fascinated by her presence, half-vexed with something in her manner, and wholly vexed with himself for having any feeling one way or the other.

What did he care for Isabel Marlay?
What if she were graceful and full of a subtle fascination of presence?
Why should he value such things?
What were they worth, after all?
What if she were kind one minute and repellent the next?
Isa Marlay was nothing to him! Lying in his little unfinished chamber, he dismissed intellectual Miss Minorkey from his mind with regret; he dismissed graceful but practical Miss Marlay from his mind also, wondering that he had to dismiss her at all, and gave himself to devising ways and means of eloping with little Katy.