Show a proper pride.
Keep him dangling and fearing, rather than hoping too much.

Show him that he can't have you just for the asking.

Why, child, I have kept a dozen fools hanging round me for a twelvemonth together sometimes; but I only married when I was tired of the game, and when I knew I had made sure of a captive who would not rebel.

I swore in church to obey poor Scrope; but, bless you, he obeyed me like a lamb to the last day of his life--and was all the better for it." Lady Scrope's reminiscences and bits of worldly wisdom were not much more to Gertrude's taste than her father's had been.

It was not pride, but a sense of humiliation and shame, which kept her from facing the thought of marriage with Reuben now that she was poor, when she had been scornfully denied to him when she was thought to be a well-dowered maiden.