His touch had no thrill for her; his frown no terror.

She had accepted him without loving him, coveting what he could give her.

And now it seemed to her that she cared nothing for anything he could give!--that the life before her was to be one series of petty conflicts between her and a surrounding circumstance which must inevitably in the end be too strong for her, conflicts from which neither heart nor ambition could gain anything.

She had desired a great position for what she might do with it.

But could she do with it! She would be subdued--oh! very quickly!--to great houses and great people, and all the vapid pomp and idle toil of wealth.