No one could find any fault, not even any of the bachelors, but none the less did the affront sink deep into their hearts.

It added a new zest to the old feud.

'We do not see that she is beautiful,' they cried over their dinner.

'We should not care for Helen of Troy if she looked like that.' The Baby dissented; the Baby actually had the 'cheek' to say, right there aloud at the banquet, that he might not be a man of taste, but, for his part, he thought she looked 'the jolliest girl' he had ever seen.

In his heart he meant that he thought she looked like a goddess or an angel (for the Baby was a reverent youth), but he veiled his real feeling under this reticent phrase.
One and all they spoke to him, spoke loudly, spoke severely.