Yes, she did love him; her heart was beating passionately; she was longing to throw herself on his breast, to be folded upon that manly heart, in trust in that brave, bright look which seemed to defy fortune.

Yes, he was a man born to conquer; he was handsome, intellectual, powerful in all mental and physical gifts.

A man of men.

But he was, by his own admission, a very obscure and insignificant person, and he had no money.
Life with him meant a long fight with adverse circumstances; life for his wife must mean patience, submission, long waiting upon destiny, and perhaps with old age and grey hairs the tardy turning of Fortune's wheel.

And was she for this to resign the kingdom that had been promised to her, the giddy heights which she was born to scale, the triumphs and delights and victories of the great world?
Yes, Lesbia loved this fortuneless knight; but she loved herself and her prospects of promotion still better.
'Oh, Lesbia, can you not be brave for my sake--trustful for my sake?
God will be good to us if we are true to each other.' 'God will not be good to me if I disobey my grandmother.