At Washington he had been somebody.

She had met him everywhere then, and had heard him much talked about.

At Washington he had been a popular man and had had the reputation of being a rich man also;--but here, at home, in the country he seemed to her to fall off in importance, and he certainly had not made himself pleasant.

Whether any man could be pleasant to her in the retirement of a country house,--any man whom she would have no interest in running down,--she did not ask herself.
An engagement to her must under any circumstances be a humdrum thing,--to be brightened only by wealth.

But here she saw no signs of wealth.