He had been foolish over a girl before, though not to such a rash extent.

Ellen Jorth had stuck in his consciousness, and with her a sense of regret.
Then swiftly rang his father's bitter words, the revealing: "But the looks of her an' what she is--they don't gibe!" In the import of these words hid the meaning of the wrong that troubled him.

Broodingly he pondered over them.
"The looks of her.

Yes, she was pretty.

But it didn't dawn on me at first.