An ordinary person would not have understood this, and would have seen in the mercenary marriage simply a greedy grasping after the loaves and fishes.

But Lambert, coming at the end of a long line of lordly ancestors, considered that both he and his cousin owed something to those of the past who had built up the family.

Thus his pride told him that Agnes had acted rightly in taking Pine as her husband, while his love cried aloud that the sacrifice was too hard upon their individual selves.

He was a Lambert, but he was also a human being, and the two emotions of love and pride strove mightily against one another.
Although quite three years had elapsed since the victim had been offered at the altar--and a willing victim to the family fetish--the struggle was still going on.

And because of its stress and strain, Lambert withdrew from society, so that he might see as little as possible of the woman he loved.