"I thought you--I thought you wanted him yourself, Madelon." "I've gone past myself.

All I think of now is what he wants," said she, shortly.

She turned to go out of the room; then she stopped and spoke to him over her shoulder: "There's no need of talking any more about it." She added: "I know what I've set out to do, and I can go through with it." Then the door shut after her, and Eugene sat down with his Shakespeare book.

But he could not read; he sat moodily puzzling over his sister, whose unfulfilled drama of life held his mind better than them all.
But puzzle as he might, he never once dreamed of the truth--that his sister Madelon had promised to marry Lot Gordon in a month's time, and sent her "yes" by word of mouth of Margaret Bean that morning.
Somehow, even with the ashes of the letter of proposal before his eyes on the hearth, and his sister's "yes" ringing in his ears, knowing as he did that Lot as well as Burr had lost his heart to her, he could not conceive of such a possibility.

He was too well acquainted with Madelon's attitude towards Lot, and she had never been one to walk whither she did not list for any man.