She inclined to think this wooing a mere caprice.

But Rhoda gave ear to him, of that there could be little doubt; and since his inheritance of ample means the affair began to have a new aspect.

That Everard persevered, though the world of women was now open to him--for, on a moderate computation, any man with Barfoot's personal advantages, and armed with fifteen hundred a year, may choose among fifty possible maidens--seemed to argue that he was really in love.

But what it would cost Rhoda to appear before her friends in the character of a bride! What a humbling of her glory! Was she capable of the love which defies all humiliation?
Or, loving ardently, would she renounce a desired happiness from dread of female smiles and whispers?
Or would it be her sufficient satisfaction to reject a wealthy suitor, and thus pose more grandly than ever before the circle who saw in her an example of woman's independence?
Powerful was the incitement to curiosity in a situation which, however it ended, would afford such matter for emotional hypothesis.
They did not talk of Everard.

Whether Rhoda replied to his letters from abroad Miss Barfoot had no means of ascertaining.