He felt that it, the lowest dip of his degradation in snobism, had given her the right to keep him in his place.

It seemed to him one of those frightful crimes against self-respect which can never be atoned, and, bad as he thought it from the standpoint of good sense as to the way to get on with her, he suffered far more because it was such a stinging, scoffing denial of all his pretenses of personal pride.
"Her sensibilities have been too blunted by association with those Washington vulgarians," he reasoned, "for her to realize the enormity of my offense, but she realizes enough to look down at me more contemptuously every time she recalls it." However, the greater the blunder the greater the necessity of repairing.

He resolutely thrust his self-abasing thoughts to the background of his mind, and began afresh.
"I'm sure," said he, "you'd not mind, once you got used to it." She was startled out of her abstraction.

"Used to--what ?" she inquired.
"To getting up early." "Oh!" She gave a relieved laugh.

"Still harping on that.