I rose, and from a gentlemanly idea of relieving his embarrassment, took up my station in the door-way surveying the external prospect, as I stood.
He followed my example, and left the room, but presently re-appeared, bearing half-a-dozen volumes in his hands, which he threw into Catherine's lap, exclaiming,
"Take them! I never want to hear, or read, or think of them again!"
"I wont have them, now!" she answered. "I shall connect them with you, and hate them."
She opened one that had obviously been often turned over, and read a portion in the drawling tone of a beginner; then laughed, and threw it from her.
"And listen!" she continued provokingly, commencing a verse of an old ballad in the same fashion.
But his self-love would endure no further
