A despair, grim at first, then mocking, took possession of him.

He loved Valerie to distraction.

Loved her for herself, apart from all worldly advantages that must accrue to him from an alliance with her.

His mother saw in that projected marriage no more than the acquisition of the lands of La Vauvraye, and she may even have thought that he himself saw no more.

In that she was wrong; but because of it she may have been justified of her impatience with him at the tardiness, the very clumsiness with which he urged his suit.