He stood for a gentleman in her eyes--that Apsley Manor, the late Sir William Hewitt Traill, C.B., they all helped to conjure the vision in her mind.

She knew the world well enough in her gentle way; but this man was a gentleman.
Yet he saw little of this and, in a broadness of heart, warned her.
"I say nothing for or against myself," he said, "and this has not been put to you as a test; I want you to come, I really hope you'll come.

But you'd be foolish beyond words if you indiscriminately accepted such an invitation from any man." "I know that," she replied firmly.
"And you'll come ?" "Yes; I've said I would." "Why do you make the exception ?" "Because I know you're a gentleman.

I trust you implicitly." That went to the heart of him--drove home--the words quivering where they struck..