Those two hands which offered themselves to the pressure of his hands, he hardly dared touch them.

He tried to escape those eyes which, tender and smiling, anxious and curious, tried to meet his eyes.

He trembled before the necessity of speaking to Bettina, before the necessity of listening to her.
It was then that Jean took refuge with Mrs.Scott, and it was then that Mrs.Scott gathered those uncertain, agitated, troubled words which were not addressed to her, and which she took for herself, nevertheless.

It would have been difficult not to be mistaken.
For of these still vague and confused sentiments which agitated her, Bettina had as yet said nothing.

She guarded and caressed the secret of her budding love, as a miser guards and caresses the first coins of his treasure.