How small both he and Katharine had appeared when they issued from the cloud of thought that enveloped them! He recalled the small, inexpressive, commonplace words in which they had tried to communicate with each other; he repeated them over to himself.
By repeating Katharine's words, he came in a few moments to such a sense of her presence that he worshipped her more than ever.

But she was engaged to be married, he remembered with a start.

The strength of his feeling was revealed to him instantly, and he gave himself up to an irresistible rage and sense of frustration.

The image of Rodney came before him with every circumstance of folly and indignity.

That little pink-cheeked dancing-master to marry Katharine?
that gibbering ass with the face of a monkey on an organ?
that posing, vain, fantastical fop?
with his tragedies and his comedies, his innumerable spites and prides and pettinesses?
Lord! marry Rodney! She must be as great a fool as he was.