He explained as well as he could just why he sat petrified with his hands in the air.
And then having brought the thing freshly to her mind, he somehow lost control of his wits and told her he loved her.

He told her a good deal in the next two minutes that he might better have kept to himself just then.

But a man generally makes a glorious fool of himself once or twice in his life and it seems the more sensible the man the more thorough a job he makes of it.
Mona moved a little farther away from him, and when she answered she did not choose her words.

"Of all things," she said, evenly, "I admire a brave man and despise a coward.

You were chicken-hearted that day, and you know it; you've just admitted it.