"I care only for you." "You've known me too short a time to have a right to say that, and I can't believe you're serious." These words of Isabel's were not perfectly sincere, for she had no doubt whatever that he himself was.

They were simply a tribute to the fact, of which she was perfectly aware, that those he had just uttered would have excited surprise on the part of a vulgar world.

And, moreover, if anything beside the sense she had already acquired that Lord Warburton was not a loose thinker had been needed to convince her, the tone in which he replied would quite have served the purpose.
"One's right in such a matter is not measured by the time, Miss Archer; it's measured by the feeling itself.

If I were to wait three months it would make no difference; I shall not be more sure of what I mean than I am to-day.

Of course I've seen you very little, but my impression dates from the very first hour we met.