True, Stephen had declared he loved her: Mr.Knight had never done anything of the sort.

Somehow this did not mend matters, and the sensation of her smallness in Knight's eyes still remained.

Had the position been reversed--had Stephen loved her in spite of a differing taste, and had Knight been indifferent in spite of her resemblance to his ideal, it would have engendered far happier thoughts.

As matters stood, Stephen's admiration might have its root in a blindness the result of passion.
Perhaps any keen man's judgment was condemnatory of her.
During the remainder of Saturday they were more or less thrown with their seniors, and no conversation arose which was exclusively their own.

When Elfride was in bed that night her thoughts recurred to the same subject.