As he had said, he was no coxcomb.

Yet there was something that he did not understand.

She confessed to friendship, and it was in his power to offer her a great position, one to which she, a colonial planter's niece, however wealthy, could never have aspired even in her dreams.
This she rejected, yet spoke of friendship.

Peter Blood had been mistaken, then.

How far had he been mistaken?
Had he been as mistaken in her feelings towards himself as he obviously was in her feelings towards his lordship?
In that case ...