At the same time the girl's cheeks flushed.

She felt herself hard beset.

A network was being woven about her by hands she could not deem other than loving; it was time to exert herself that the meshes might not be completed, and the necessity cost her a feeling of shame.
'But your brother's friend, my dear.

Surely you ought not to say that you have no interest in him at all.' 'I do say it, mother, and I wish to say it so plainly that you cannot after this mistake me.

Alfred's friends are very far from being necessarily my friends.