His beauty, in a community of picturesquely handsome men, had little weight with her, except to accent the contrast with their fuller manhood.
Her life had given her no illusions in regard to the other sex.

She had found them, however, more congenial and safer companions than women, and more accessible to her own sense of justice and honor.

In return, they had respected and admired rather than loved her, in spite of her womanly graces.

If she had at times contemplated eventual marriage, it was only as a possible practical partnership in her business; but as she lived in a country where men thought it dishonorable and a proof of incompetency to rise by their wives' superior fortune, she had been free from that kind of mercenary persecution, even from men who might have worshiped her in hopeless and silent honor.
For this reason, there was nothing in the situation that suggested a single compromising speculation in the minds of the neighbors, or disturbed her own tranquillity.

There seemed to be nothing in the future except a possible relief to her curiosity.