He could not help making a confidant of her,--a thing he had never done before with any other person as to his plans in life.

Perhaps she might watch his career with more interest from her acquaintance with him.

He loved to think that there was one woman at least who would be pleased to hear of his success if he succeeded, as with life and health he would,--who would share his disappointment if fate should not favor him .-- So he wound and wreathed himself into her thoughts.
It was not very long before Myrtle began to accept the idea that she was the one person in the world whose peculiar duty it was to sympathize with the aspiring young man whose humble beginnings she had the honor of witnessing.

And it is not very far from being the solitary confidant, and the single source of inspiration, to the growth of a livelier interest, where a young man and a young woman are in question.
Myrtle was at this time her own mistress as never before.

The three young men had access to her as she walked to and from meeting and in her frequent rambles, besides the opportunities Cyprian had of meeting her in his sister's company, and the convenient visits which, in connection with the great lawsuit, Murray Bradshaw could make, without question, at The Poplars.
It was not long before Cyprian perceived that he could never pass a certain boundary of intimacy with Myrtle.