With that thought came always a suggestion of slim, freckled Dorothy and Sir George's offer.

She held out to me wealth and position, a peaceful home for my old age, and a grave with a pompous, pious epitaph at Bakewell church, in death.
When I was compelled to leave Scotland, circumstances forced me to a decision, and my resolution was quickly taken.

I would go to Derbyshire and would marry Dorothy.

I did not expect ever again to feel great love for a woman.

The fuse, I thought, had burned out when I loved Mary Stuart.
One woman, I believed, was like another to me, and Dorothy would answer as well as any for my wife.