But the weakness which Lewis arraigned himself on was the very obvious failing of the diffident and the irresolute.

Wratislaw tried the path of boisterous encouragement.
"Get up, you old fool, and come down to the house.

You a coward! You are simply a romancer with an unfortunate knack of tragedy." The man must be laughed out of this folly.

If he were not he would show the self-accusing front to the world, and the Manorwaters, Alice, Stocks--all save his chosen intimates--would credit him with a cowardice of which he had no taint.
Arthur and George, resigned now to the inevitable lady, had seen in the incident only the anxiety of a man for his beloved, and just a hint of the ungenerous in his treatment of Mr.Stocks.They were not prepared for the silent tragic figure which Wratislaw brought with him.
Arthur had a glint of the truth, but the obtuse George saw nothing.

"Do you know that you are going to have the Wisharts for neighbours for a couple of months yet?
Old Wishart has taken Glenavelin from the end of August." This would have been pleasant hearing at another time, but now it simply drove home the nail of his bitter reflections.