"I promised papa that when I was well I'd take charge of Mr.Bressant myself!" Sophie's life, as has been said, was preeminently an ideal one.
Materialism disturbed and perplexed her, and she ignored it as much as possible.

She was inspired and excited by the ideal she had conceived of Bressant, and of her sphere of action with regard to him.

But, had the physical personality of the man been thrust upon her in the first place, she would have very likely recoiled, her finer intuitions would have been jarred, and their precision paralyzed.

Standing aloof, however, living and acting only in the realm of her pure maiden creeds, every thing seemed clear and simple enough.

Right should be done, and wrong be righted; there would be no material conditions or hinderances; results were attained immediately.
But life is not what the pure-hearted girl painted it in her ideal dreams.