Jasper was the first man who had ever evinced a man's interest in her.

Until she met him she had not known a look of compliment or a word addressed to her emotions.

He was as far as possible from representing the lover of her imagination, but from the day of that long talk in the fields near Wattleborough the thought of him had supplanted dreams.

On that day she said to herself: I could love him if he cared to seek my love.

Premature, perhaps; why, yes, but one who is starving is not wont to feel reluctance at the suggestion of food.