She thanked him, but said she could never consent to let him disgrace himself by marrying into a family like ours.

He had come over every now and then, and had seen they wanted for nothing when father and Jim were away; but she always felt her heart growing colder towards him and his prosperity while we were so low down in every way.

As for Gracey, she (Aileen) believed that she was in love with me in a quiet, steady way of her own, without showing it much, but that she would be true to me, if I asked her, to the end of the world, and she was sure that she could never marry any one else as long as I lived.

She was that sort of girl.

So didn't I think I ought to do everything I could to get a better character, and try and be good enough for such a girl?
She knew girls pretty well.