There was not, he thought, anything unfair in this.

He was but warning her against a man who was unworthy of her.

Unworthy of her! What words could express the disparity between them?
Not but if she liked him--and this he said with a certain bitterness--or thought she liked him, the disproportion already ceased to exist.
Hour after hour of that long summer day he walked, revolving such thoughts as these; all his conclusions tending to the one point, that _he_ was not the easy victim she thought him, and that, come what might, _he_ should not be offered up as a sacrifice to her worship of Joe Atlee.
'There is nothing would gratify the fellow's vanity,' thought he, 'like a successful rivalry of him! Tell him he was preferred to me, and he would be ready to fall down and worship whoever had made the choice.' By dwelling on all the possible and impossible issues of such an attachment, he had at length convinced himself of its existence, and even more, persuaded himself to fancy it was something to be regretted and grieved over for worldly considerations, but not in any way regarded as personally unpleasant.
As he came in sight of home and saw a light in the small tower where Kate's bedroom lay, he determined he would go up to his sister and tell her so much of his mind as he believed was finally settled, and in such a way as would certainly lead her to repeat it to Nina.
'Kate shall tell her that if I have left her suddenly and gone back to Trinity to keep my term, I have not fled the field in a moment of faint-heartedness.

I do not deny her beauty.

I do not disparage one of her attractions, and she has scores of them.