But
forlorn hopes do sometimes end in splendid triumphs. That which
she might gain was so much! And what could she lose? The sweet
bloom of her maiden shame? That, she told herself, with bitterest
inward tears, was already gone from her. Frank Tregear at any rate
knew where her heart had been given. Frank Tregear knew that
having lost her heart to one man she was anxious to marry another.
He knew that she was willing to accept the coronet of a duchess as
her consolation. That bloom of her maiden shame, of which she
quite understood the sweetness of the charm, the value--was gone
when she had brought herself to such a state that any human being
should know that, loving one man, she should be willing to marry
another. The sweet treasure was gone from her. Its aroma was fled.
It behoved her now to be ambitious, cautious,--and if possible
successful.
When first she had so resolved, success seemed to be easily within
her reach. Of all the golden youths that crossed her path no one
was so pleasant to her eye, to her ear, to her feelings generally
as this Duke's young heir.
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