The judgment is not warped by passion or clouded by emotion; you see the woman as she is, not as you wish to see her, and if she disappoint it does not matter.

You are not left to choose between systematic self-deception and a humiliating admission of your mistake.

The lady has not been placed upon an impossible pedestal, and she has not toppled down.

In this case the lady started at the most advantageous disadvantage; every admirable quality, her candour, her courage, her spirited independence, her evident determination to piece a broken life together again and make the best of it, told doubly in her favour to me with my special knowledge of her past.

It would be too much to say that I was deeply interested; but Mrs.Lascelles had inspired me with a certain sympathy and dispassionate regard.