She did not care to marry Senator Ratcliffe; she liked his society and was flattered by his confidence; she rather hoped to prevent him from ever making a formal offer, and if not, she would at least push it off to the last possible moment; but she was not to be frightened from marrying him by any amount of spitefulness or gossip, and she did not mean to refuse him except for stronger reasons than these.

She even went so far in her desperate courage as to laugh at her cousin, Mrs.
Clinton, whose venerable husband she allowed and even encouraged to pay her such public attention and to express sentiments of such youthful ardour as she well knew would inflame and exasperate the excellent lady his wife.
Carrington was the person most unpleasantly affected by the course which this affair had taken.

He could no longer conceal from himself the fact that he was as much m love as a dignified Virginian could be.

With him, at all events, she had shown no coquetry, nor had she ever either flattered or encouraged him.

But Carrington, m his solitary struggle against fate, had found her a warm friend; always ready to assist where assistance was needed, generous with her money in any cause which he was willing to vouch for, full of sympathy where sympathy was more than money, and full of resource and suggestion where money and sympathy failed.