She knew that he desired her happiness to be in her cousin's keeping.

The old days were over, the sweet days before that other had come, when she and her father had sufficed for each other.
They could never come again, and he wanted her to marry Robin.

Robin's mother, who was good to her, had suggested that she was trying Robin's patience too far.

Why, if she could make them all happy--she was not in a state of mind to appreciate what marriage with one man while she loved another was going to cost her--if she could make them all happy, ought she not to do so?
"Father!" she whispered.

"Father!" "What is it, Nell ?" She rubbed her cheek slowly against his arm, not speaking for a second or two.
"Father, I am ready to marry Robin whenever you will." The General's heart bounded up with an immense relief.
"Whenever I will ?" he said, with an air of rallying her.