His connection with the turf had certainly brought him into contact with a great many good men, he was to be met everywhere, and she could hardly wonder that Bertha should have been taken with his good looks and the brilliancy of his conversation.

The refusal, then, came to her not only as an absolute surprise, but as a shock.
She considered that Bertha had certainly given him, as well as everyone else, reason to suppose that she intended to accept him.
Many of her intimate friends had spoken to her as if the affair was already a settled matter, and when it became known that Bertha had refused him, she would be set down as a flirt, and it would certainly injure her prospects of making the sort of match that she desired.

She had said something of all this to the girl, and had only received the reply: "I know what I am doing, mamma.

I can understand that you thought I was going to marry him.

I thought so myself, but something has happened that has opened my eyes, and I have every reason to be thankful that it has.