Miss Greeby was an excellent comrade, but could not be the beloved of any man, because of the very limitations of semi-masculinity upon which she prided herself.

Noel Lambert wanted a womanly woman, and Lady Agnes was his ideal of what a wife should be.
Miss Greeby had in every possible way offered herself for the post, but Lambert had never cared for her sufficiently to endure the thought of passing through life with her beside him.

He said she was "a good sort"; and when a man says that of a woman, she may be to him a good friend, or even a platonic chum, but she can never be a desirable wife in his eyes.
What Miss Greeby lacked was sex, and lacking that, lacked everything.

It was strange that with her rough common sense she could not grasp this want.

But the thought that Lambert required what she could never give--namely, the feminine tenderness which strong masculine natures love--never crossed her very clear and mathematical mind.
So she was bent upon a fool's errand, as she strode towards the Abbot's Wood, although she did not know it.