Ellen met Sir Isaac—in the days before he was Sir Isaac—at the house of a school friend with whom she was staying at Hythe, and afterwards her mother and sister came down and joined her for a fortnight at a Folkstone boarding house. Mr. Harman had caught a chill while inspecting his North Wales branches and had come down with his mother to recuperate¹. He and his mother occupied a suite² of rooms in the most imposing³ hotel upon the Leas. Ellen's friend's people were partners in a big flour firm and had a pleasant new æsthetic white and green house of rough-cast and slates⁴ in the pretty country beyond the Hythe golf links, and Ellen's friend's father was deeply anxious to develop amiable⁵ arrangements with Mr. Harman. There was much tennis, much croquet, much cycling to the Hythe sea-wall and bathing from little tents and sitting about in the sunshine, and Mr. Harman had his first automobile⁶ with him—they were still something of a novelty in those days—and was urgent to take picnic parties to large lonely places on the downs.  
There were only two young men in that circle, one was engaged to Ellen's friend's sister, and the other was bound to a young woman remote in Italy; neither was strikingly attractive and both regarded Harman with that awe⁷ tempered by undignified furtive⁸ derision which wealth and business capacity so often inspire in the young male. At first he was quiet and simply looked at her, as it seemed any one might look, then she perceived he looked at her intently and continuously, and was persistently⁹ close to her and seemed always to be trying to do things to please her and attract her attention. And then from the general behaviour of the women about her, her mother and Mrs. Harman and her friend's mother and her friend's sister, rather than from any one specific thing they said, it grew upon her consciousness that this important and fabulously¹⁰ wealthy person, who was also it seemed to her so modest and quiet and touchingly¹¹ benevolent¹², was in love with her.
 
"Your daughter," said Mrs. Harman repeatedly to Mrs. Sawbridge, "is charming, perfectly¹³ charming."
 
"She's such a child," said Mrs. Sawbridge repeatedly in reply.
 
And she told Ellen's friend's mother apropos¹⁴ of Ellen's friend's engagement that she wanted all her daughters to marry for love, she didn't care what the man had so long as they loved each other, and meanwhile she took the utmost care that Isaac had undisputed access to the girl, was watchfully¹⁵ ready to fend¹⁶ off anyone else, made her take everything he offered and praised him quietly and steadily¹⁷ to her. She pointed¹⁸ out how modest and unassuming he was, in spite of the fact that he was "controlling an immense business" and in his own particular trade "a perfect Napoleon."
 
"For all one sees to the contrary he might be just a private gentleman. And he feeds thousands and thousands of people...."
 
"Sooner or later," said Mrs. Harman, "I suppose Isaac will marry. He's been such a good son to me that I shall feel it dreadfully, and yet, you know, I wish I could see him settled. Then I shall settle—in a little house of my own somewhere. Just a little place. I don't believe in coming too much between son and daughter-in-law...."
 
Harman's natural avidity was tempered by a proper modesty¹⁹. He thought Ellen so lovely and so infinitely²⁰ desirable—and indeed she was—that it seemed incredible to him that he could ever get her. And yet he had got most of the things in life he had really and urgently wanted. His doubts gave his love-making an eager, lavish²¹ and pathetic delicacy²². He watched her minutely in an agony of appreciation²³. He felt ready to give or promise anything.
 
She was greatly flattered by his devotion and she liked the surprises and presents he heaped upon her extremely. Also she was sorry for him beyond measure. In the deep recesses²⁴ of her heart was an oleographic ideal of a large brave young man with blue eyes, a wave in his fair hair, a wonderful tenor²⁵ voice and—she could not help it, she tried to look away and not think of it—a broad chest. With him she intended to climb mountains. So clearly she could not marry Mr. Harman. And because of that she tried to be very kind indeed to him, and when he faltered²⁶ that she could not possibly care for him, she reassured²⁷ him so vaguely²⁸ as to fill him with wild gusts

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