Barney had always known that he fancied Charlotte, and had felt a certain triumph that he had won her in the face of it.

"You might have somebody that's a good deal better off if you didn't have me," he said to her once, and they both knew whom he meant.

"I don't want anybody else," Charlotte had replied, with her shy stateliness.

Now Barney thought that she had changed her mind; and why should she not?
A girl ought to marry if she could; he could not marry her himself, and should not expect her to remain single all her life for his sake.

Of course Charlotte wanted to be married, like other women.