When I said I would marry him, it was of my own free-will.

I knew what I was doing, and it was not only for his sake I did it.

It is not as if he believed I cared for him very much.

Then, perhaps--but he knows I don't, and--he is different from other men--he does not seem to mind.

I knew at the time that I accepted him for the sake of other things, which are just the same now as they were then: because he was poor and I had money; because I felt sure he would never do much by himself, and I thought I could help him, and my money would help too; because the people at Vandon are so wretched, and their cottages are tumbling down, and there is no one who lives among them and cares about them.