It was with a mighty disgust, therefore, that Sir George considered alike the predicament into which a caprice had hurried him, and the insufferable young Hector whom fate had made his antagonist.
They would laugh at White's.

They would make a jest of it over the cakes and fruit at Betty's.

Selwyn would turn a quip.

And yet the thing was beyond a joke.

He must be a target first and a butt afterwards--if any afterwards there were.
As he entered the Mitre, sick with chagrin, and telling himself he might have known that something of this kind would come of stooping to vulgar company, he bethought him--for the first time in an hour--of the girl.
'Lord!' he said, thinking of her request, her passion, and her splendid eyes; and he stood.