It is to the credit of the man's insight that he saw the mood and took pains to foster it.
Twice he asked her to marry him.

The first time her heart was still sore with disappointment and she refused--yet half-heartedly.
He waited his time and when the natural cheerfulness of her temper was beginning to rise, he again tried his fortune.
"I cannot," she cried.

"I cannot.

I like you very much, but oh, it is too much to ask me to marry you." "But I love you with all my heart, Alice." And the honesty of his tone and the distant thought of a very different hope brought the tears to her eyes.
He had forgotten all pompous dreams and the stilted prospects with which he had aforetime hoped to beguile his wife.

The man was plain and simple now, a being very much on fire with an honest passion.