He had come to her
handicapped by an unromantic accident and a practical want of energy and
intellect. He would have to touch her interest anew if, indeed, he
would ever succeed in dispelling the old impression. His beauty, in a
community of picturesquely handsome men, had little weight with her,
except to accent the contrast with their fuller manhood.
Her life had given her no illusions in regard to the other sex. She had
found them, however, more congenial and safer companions than women, and
more accessible to her own sense of justice and honor. In return, they
had respected and admired rather than loved her, in spite of her womanly
graces. If she had at times contemplated eventual marriage, it was only
as a possible practical partnership in her business; but as she lived in
a country where men thought it dishonorable and a proof of incompetency
to rise by their wives' superior fortune, she had been free from that
kind of mercenary persecution, even from men who might have worshiped
her in hopeless and silent honor.
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