Esterbrook Elliott , standing before her , thought proudly that he had never seen a woman who might compare with her . In every detail she satisfied his critical , fastidious taste . There was not a discordant touch about her . Esterbrook Elliott had always loved Marian Lesley -- or thought he had . They had grown up together from childhood . He was an only son and she an only daughter . It had always been an understood thing between the two families that the boy and girl should marry . But Marian 's father had decreed that no positive pledge should pass between them until Marian was twenty-one . Esterbrook accepted his mapped-out destiny and selected bride with the conviction that he was an exceptionally lucky fellow . Out of all the women in the world Marian was the very one whom he would have chosen as mistress of his fine , old home . She had been his boyhood 's ideal . He believed that he loved her sincerely , but he was not too much in love to be blind to the worldly advantages of his marriage with his cousin . His father had died two years previously , leaving him wealthy and independent . Marian had lost her mother in childhood ; her father died when she was eighteen . Since then she had lived alone with her aunt . Her life was quiet and lonely . Esterbrook 's companionship was all that brightened it , but it was enough . Marian lavished on him all the rich , womanly love of her heart . On her twenty-first birthday they were formally betrothed . They were to be married in the following autumn .
No shadow had drifted across the heaven XXXXX her happiness .
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