And yet that face rose up between her and this man who was pleading at her side.

Many women, likely enough, have seen some such vision from the past and have disregarded it, only to find too late that that which is thrust aside is not necessarily hidden; for alas! those faces of our departed youth have an uncanny trick of rising from the tomb of our forgetfulness.

But Augusta was not of the great order of opportunists.

Because a thing might be convenient, it did not, according to the dictates of her moral sense, follow that it was lawful.

Therefore, she was a woman to be respected.
For a woman who, except under most exceptional circumstances, gives her instincts the lie in order to pander to her convenience or her desire for wealth and social ease, is not altogether a woman to be respected.
In a very few seconds she had made up her mind.
"I am very much obliged to you, Mr.Tombey," she said; "you have done me a great honour, the greatest honour man can do to a woman; but I cannot marry you." "Are you sure ?" gasped the unfortunate Tombey, for his hopes had been high.