But by now the chief obstacle seemed to lie in another quarter, Victoria was apparently determined to commit herself to nothing.

And so it happened that when Albert went to England he had made up his mind to withdraw entirely from the affair.

Nothing would induce him, he confessed to a friend, to be kept vaguely waiting; he would break it all off at once.

His reception at Windsor threw an entirely new light upon the situation.

The wheel of fortune turned with a sudden rapidity; and he found, in the arms of Victoria, the irrevocable assurance of his overwhelming fate.
II He was not in love with her.