The Canon laid a firm hand upon his arm, and led him away from the study.

In the passage he stopped, and asked Hyacinth to go back and blow out the candle which still burned on the study table.
'And just put some turf on the fire,' he added; 'I don't want it to go out.' The pause enabled Hyacinth to regain his self-command, and the performance of the perfectly ordinary acts required of him helped to bring him back again to common life.
When they entered the drawing-room it was evident that Mrs.Beecher had already heard the news, and was, in fact, discussing the matter eagerly with Marion.

She sprang up, and hastened across the room to meet them.
'I am so glad,' she said--'so delighted! I am sure you and Marion will be happy together.' She took Hyacinth's hands in hers, and held them while she spoke, then drew nearer to him and looked up in his face expectantly.

A fearful suspicion seized him that on an occasion of the kind she might consider it right to kiss him.

It was with the greatest difficulty that he suppressed a wholly unreasonable impulse to laugh aloud.