He could not at first decide whether he were pleased or displeased at this.

But upon the whole the novelty attracted him.
She was so sweet and sensitive that she feared his silence betokened something in his brain of the nature of an enemy to her.

"What are you thinking of that makes those lines come in your forehead ?" she asked.
"I did not mean to offend you by speaking of the time being premature as yet." Touched by the genuine loving-kindness which had lain at the foundation of these words, and much moved, Winterborne turned his face aside, as he took her by the hand.

He was grieved that he had criticised her.
"You are very good, dear Grace," he said, in a low voice.

"You are better, much better, than you used to be." "How ?" He could not very well tell her how, and said, with an evasive smile, "You are prettier;" which was not what he really had meant.