hout exaltation.

"This was the beginning. In a week the earth and sky held nothing for me
but that woman. Her name, which I had not learned at our first
interview, was Marah Leighton--a fitting watch-word for a struggle that
could terminate only with my life! For I had got to the pass that this
woman must be mine. I would have her for my wife or see her dead; she
should never leave the town with another. Yes; homely as I was, without
recommendation of family, or more means than enough to keep a wife from
want, I boldly entered upon this determination, and in the face of some
dozen lovers, that at the first revelation of her beauty began to swarm
about her steps, pressed my claims and pushed forward my suit till I
finally gained a hearing, and after that a promise, which, if vague, was
more than any of her other lovers could boast of, or why did they all
gradually withdraw from the struggle, leaving me alone in my homage?

"The uncertainties of her position (she was an orphan and dependent upon
Miss Dudleigh for subsistence) had added greatly to my tenderness for
her. It also added to my hope. For if I were poor, she was poorer, and
ought to find in the managing of my humble home a satisfaction she could
not experience in the enjoyment of a relative's bounty, even if that
relative was a woman like Honora Dudleigh. And yet one doubts an
exultant happiness; and as I grew to know her better, I realized that if
I ever did succeed in making her mine, I must see to it that my
fortunes bettered, as she would never be happy as a poor man's wife,
even if that man brought her independence and love.

"She loved splendor, she loved distinction, she loved the frivolities of
life. Not with a childish pleasure or even a girlish enthusiasm, but
with a woman's strong and determined spirit. I have seen her pace
through and through those great halls just for the pleasure of realizing
their spaciousness; and though the sight made my heart cringe, I have
admired her step and the poise of her head as much as if she had been
the queen of it all, and I her humblest vassal. Then her luxury! It
showed as plainly in her poverty as it could have done in wealth. If it
were flowers she handled, it was as a goddess would handle them. None
were too beautiful, or too costly, or too rare for her restless fingers
to pluck, or her dainty feet to tread on. Had she possessed jewels, she
would have worn them like roses, and flung them away almost as freely