It is well for me, for I was proud and reserved and full of self-conceit.

And you really think it will not hurt him to love me, and to have me love him, papa ?" "Stuff and nonsense!" growled the old gentleman, testily; "hurt him!" But the professor was really a very wise man, in spite of his occasional blindness; and he refrained from showing Sophie the exaggeration and distortion which marked the view she took of her conduct.

He saw it would involve lowering the high integrity of her ideal conceptions respecting delicacy and honor--hardly worth while, merely for the sake of explaining the distinction between a trifling piece of self-deception and mistaken vanity, and the severe and unrelenting sentence which Sophie had passed upon herself.

Meanwhile, every word she had uttered had been an indirect, but none the less telling blow upon a sore place in his own conscience.

It was long since Professor Valeyon had stood so low in his own self-esteem.
They sat awhile in silence, Sophie nestling up to her father as if seeking protection from the very love that had come to her; and he sighed, and sighed again, and coughed, and pulled his nose and his beard, and finally blew his nose.