It was not so much his words which provoked her as the tone in which they were uttered.

And yet she had not the slightest idea of what was coming.
If, thoroughly admiring her devotion and mistaken as to her character, he were to ask her to become a Protestant nun, or suggest to her that she should leave her home and go as nurse into a hospital, then there would have occurred the sort of folly of which she believed him to be capable.

Of the folly which he now committed, she had not believed him to be capable.
It had come on to rain hard, and she held her umbrella low over her head.

He also was walking with an open umbrella in his hand, so that they were not very close to each other.

Fanny, as she stepped on impetuously, put her foot into the depth of a pool, and splashed herself thoroughly.
"Oh dear, oh dear," said she; "this is very disagreeable." "Miss Clavering," said he, "I have been looking for an opportunity to speak to you, and I do not know when I may find another so suitable as this." She still believed that some proposition was to be made to her which would be disagreeable, and perhaps impertinent; but it never occurred to her that Mr.Saul was in want of a wife.
"Doesn't it rain too hard for talking ?" she said.
"As I have begun, I must go on with it now," he replied, raising his voice a little, as though it were necessary that he should do so to make her hear him through the rain and darkness.