How could she hope to be happy with him?
What had interested her in him was that air of culture and refinement so conspicuously lacked by the men who had hitherto approached her.

He had seemed to her the first _gentleman_ who sought her favour.

To countenance him, moreover, was to defy her mother's petty rule.

But, no, she did not love him--did not like him.
Yet to retract her promise she was ashamed.

Only girls of low social position played fast and loose in that way.