As for me, I must marry some prosperous tradesman's widow, if I ever marry at all." The influence of the world in which his life had been spent had degraded Valentine Hawkehurst, and had done much to harden him; and yet he was not altogether hard.

He discovered his own weakness very soon after the beginning of his acquaintance with Mr.Sheldon's stepdaughter.

He knew very well that if he had been no fitting lover for Diana Paget, he was still less a fitting lover for Charlotte Halliday.

He knew that although it might suit Mr.Sheldon's purpose to make use of the Captain and himself as handy instruments for the accomplishment of somewhat dirty work, he would be the very last man to accept one of those useful instruments as a husband for his stepdaughter.

He knew all this; and knew that, apart from all worldly considerations, there was an impassable gulf between himself and Charlotte.