Some strange country girls on either side of me began to titter.

I blushed more decidedly.

The motley chap in the ring must have seen it.

He grinned from ear to ear, walked up to the very edge of the rope, and repeated: "Were you ever in love, young man ?" There were young men all round me; he might have looked at Knickerbocker, or any one of a dozen others; if I had not been supersensitive I never should have imagined that he meant to be personal.
If I had not retained the self-possession of an egotist, I should have reflected that it was not the thing to notice the vulgar wit of a circus-clown.

Unfortunately self-possession is the last possession of a bashful man.