Confused, he seemed to know nothing but that he must finish his sentence to satisfy the interrogation in her eyes.
"You think I am a gentleman like Robert.

I am only a--" "What ?" she asked, looking upon him good-humouredly, as she would have looked upon a blundering boy.
"I am only a--a--cad, you know." His face had an uncomfortable look, hot and red.

She was puzzled, but the meaning that was in his thought did not enter hers.

In a moment that romantic didacticism which was one of the strongest elements in her character had struck his strange words into its own music.
"Oh, Mr.Trenholme!" she cried; "do not so far outdo us all in the grace of confession.

We are all willing to own ourselves sinners; but to confess to vulgarity, to be willing to admit that in us personally there is a vein of something vulgar, that, to our shame, we sometimes strike upon! Ah, people must be far nobler than they are before that clause can be added to the General Confession!" He looked at her, and hardly heard her words; but went on his way with eyes dazzled and heart tumultuous.
When at home he turned into the study, where his brother was still a prisoner.