He bent his head a little towards me, and with a single hasty glance seemed to dive into my eyes.
"Stubborn ?" he said, "and annoyed.

Ah! it is consistent.

I put my request in an absurd, almost insolent form.

Miss Eyre, I beg your pardon.

The fact is, once for all, I don't wish to treat you like an inferior: that is" (correcting himself), "I claim only such superiority as must result from twenty years' difference in age and a century's advance in experience.