"Why should I be prevented from seeing her ?" Now he had seen her, and as he returned by the train to London, he acknowledged to himself that it was no longer in his power to promote his fortune by marriage.

He had at last said that to Lucy which made it impossible for him to offer his hand to any other woman.

He had not, in truth, asked her to be his wife; but he had told her that he loved her, and could never love any other woman.

He had asked for no answer to this assurance, and then he had left her.
In the course of that afternoon he did question himself as to his conduct to this girl, and subjected himself to some of the rigours of a cross-examination.

He was not a man who could think of a girl as the one human being whom he loved above all others, and yet look forward with equanimity to the idea of doing her an injury.