Lord Atherton saw Miss Arleigh and fell in love with her at once.

Not for her money--he was rich enough to dispense with wealth in a wife; not for money, but for her wonderful beauty and simple, unaffected grace.
He was charmed with her; the candor, the purity, the brightness of her disposition enchanted him.
"Her lips seemed to be doubly lovely," he said one day to Lady Ridsdale, "because they have not, in my opinion, ever uttered one false word." Marion was equally enchanted; there was no one so great or so good as Lord Atherton.

The heroes she had read of faded into insignificance before him.

He was so generous, so noble, so loyal, so truthful in every way, such a perfect gentleman, and no mean scholar.

It was something to win the love of such a man, it was something to love him.
Now she understood this was true love, the very remembrance of her infatuation over Allan Lyster dyed her beautiful faca crimson.