Still, there was no mistaking their looks and tones when they put the question.

Miss Mellicent, in her confusion, made matters worse.

She coloured up, and snatched her hand out of mine, and ran back to the house by herself.
The girls, enjoying their own foolish joke, congratulated me on my prospects.

I must have been out of sorts in some way--upset, perhaps, by what I had heard in the boat.

Anyhow, I lost my temper, and _I_ made matters worse, next.