His own voice sounded boorish to him after Cecily's accents.
Cecily began to speak of how she had spent the day.

Her aunt was making purchases--was later in returning than had been expected.

Then she asked for an account of Elgar's doings since they last met.

The conversation grew easier Reuben began to recover his natural voice, and to lose disagreeable self-consciousness in the delight of hearing Cecily and meeting her look.

Had he known her better, he would have observed that she spoke with unusual diffidence, that she was not quite so self-possessed a.