But there was the obligation upon him to speak--it is expected in such cases, if only as a formality--of his 'love': hard to do even in view and near to the damsel's reddening cheeks: it perplexed him.

He dropped a veil on the bashful topic; his tone was the same as when he reverted to the material points; his present income, his position in the great Bank of Shotts and Co., his prospects, the health of the heir to the Cantor earldom.
He considered that he spoke to a member of the City merchants, whose preference for the plain positive, upon the question of an alliance between families by marriage, lends them for once a resemblance to lords.

When a person is not read by character, the position or profession is called on to supply raised print for the finger-ends to spell.
Hard on poor Fredi! was Victor's thought behind the smile he bent on this bald Cupid.

She deserved a more poetical lover! His paternal sympathies for the girl besought in love, revived his past feelings as a wooer; nothing but a dread of the influence of Mr.Barmby's toned eloquence upon the girl, after her listening to Dudley Sowerby's addresses, checked his contempt for the latter.

He could not despise the suitor he sided with against another and seemingly now a more dangerous.
Unable quite to repress the sentiment, he proceeded immediately to put it to his uses.