He was not master of his own glorious voice; he was without the self-possession indispensable to the perfect performance of his magnificent bow.

"I have waited to have a word with you," he began abruptly, "before you go out for your drive." Already unnerved, even before she had seen him--painfully conscious that she had committed a serious error, on the last occasion when they had met, in speaking at all--Carmina neither answered him nor looked at him.
She bent her head confusedly, and advanced a little nearer to the house door.
He at once moved so as to place himself in her way.
"I must request you to call to mind what passed between us," he resumed, "when we met by accident some little time since." He had speculated on frightening her.

His insolence stirred her spirit into asserting itself.

"Let me by, if you please," she said; "the carriage is waiting for me." "The carriage can wait a little longer," he answered coarsely.

"On the occasion to which I have referred, you were so good as to make advances, to which I cannot consider myself as having any claim.