Sir Hugh then had stood by her with truth, for he had well understood the matter, and could enter into it with zest.

Lord Ongar, in his state of health, had not been in a position to make close stipulations as to the dower in the event of his proposed wife becoming a widow.

"No, no; we wont stand that," Sir Hugh had said to the lawyers.
"We all hope, of course, that Lord Ongar may live long; no doubt he'll turn over a new leaf and die at ninety.

But in such a case as this the widow must not be fettered." The widow had not been fettered, and Julia had been made to understand the full advantage of such an arrangement.
But still she had believed in love when she had bade farewell to Harry in the garden.

She had told herself then, even then, that she would have better liked to have taken him and his love--if only she could have afforded it.