Rosamund should be his; he swore it in his heart.

She should take him as he was, grocer's shop and all; not until her troth was pledged would he make known to her the prospect of better things.

The emotions of the primitive lover had told upon him.
She thought to escape him, by flight across Europe?
But what if the flight were meant as a test of his worthiness?
He seized upon the idea, and rejoiced in it.

Rosamund might well have conceived this method of justifying both him and herself.

"If he loves me as I would be loved, let him dare to follow!" To-morrow morning he would stand before her, grocerdom a thousand miles away.