David with some difficulty suppressed an irresistible smile.
"Do you mean," he asked incredulously, "that you never noticed, what every one else saw so plainly, that that poor fellow fairly worshipped the ground you trod on ?" Then again a painful flush came to Elizabeth's face.
"I was not sure," she stammered, for her conscience did not wholly acquit her--"I would not let myself see or notice things; besides, I was thinking of you." Then David kissed the hands he held; but there was a troubled look in his eyes.
"Poor beggar!" he muttered to himself.

Then aloud, "Do you know, my darling, what people will say when they hear you have thrown over a man like Herrick for me--for a mere curate, with empty pockets and not too many brains." "Do you suppose I care what they say!" throwing her head back in rather a regal fashion.
"They will say you are mad; and upon my word," and here David knit his brows in a puzzled manner, "I am not sure that they will be wrong.

Look at the difference between us.

Herrick is my superior in every way.

I used to shake in my shoes to hear him talk to the vicar.