He cannot dismiss the memory of his loss, and calls Hallam "a soul of
nobler tone," superior to himself, who is feeling "like some poor girl"
that has fixed her affections on a man of higher rank than her own. She
compares her state with his, and sighs over her own inferior
circumstances, and repines at her humbler lot. The neighbours jeer at her
disappointment, and she says
"How vain am I!
How should he love a thing so low?"
No doubt, the passing into a higher world gave Hallam a superior dignity
in the Poet's estimation.[40]