She wondered how he looked.

And what had she now to offer for perfection in a man?
Was she not reduced to the bargain counter, in the very basement of life?
If so, what must be her bargain here?
And then she recalled the refusal of Sim Gage himself to think of marriage.

He had said he was not good enough for her.

How could she then marry him, even if she so wished?
Must she woo him and persuade him, argue with him?
All her own virginal soul, all the sanctity of her life, rebelled against that thought also.
Object, matrimony! What a cruel jest it all had been.

What a terrible dilemma, this into which it all had resolved itself.