CHAPTER VII.
Ann Markham's thoughts of Bart that day were chiefly wondering thoughts.
She tried to think scornfully of his refusal to help her; theoretically she derided the religion that produced the refusal, but in the bottom of her heart she looked at it with a wonder that was akin to admiration.
Then there was a question whether he would remain fixed in his resolution.

If this man did not love her then Ann's confidence failed her in respect to her judgment of what was or was not; for though she had regarded him always as a person of not much strength or importance, not independent enough to be anything more than the creature of the woman whom he desired to marry, yet, curiously enough, she had believed that his love for her had a strength that would die hard.

She did not stop to ask herself how it could be that a weak man could love her strongly.

Love, in any constant and permanent sense of the word, was an almost unknown quality among her companions, and yet she had attributed it to Bart.

Well! his refusal of last night proved that she had been mistaken--that was all.