She was quite sure that she was not in love with Larry Twentyman; but she was by no means sure that it might not be her duty to accept him without being in love with him.

Of course he must know the whole truth; but she could tell him the truth and then leave it for him to decide.

What right had she to stand in the way of her friends, or to be a burden to them when such a mode of life was offered to her?
She had nothing of her own, and regarded herself as being a dead weight on the family.

And she was conscious in a certain degree of isolation in the household,--as being her father's only child by the first marriage.
She would hardly know how to look her father in the face and tell him that she had again refused the man.

But yet there was something awful to her in the idea of giving herself to a man without loving him,--in becoming a man's wife when she would fain remain away from him! Would it be possible that she should live with him while her feelings were of such a nature?
And then she blushed as she lay in the dark, with her cheek on her pillow, when she found herself forced to inquire within her own heart whether she did not love some one else.