22/24 It was not because I had been bold, but because I had been pronounced bold, that I suffered so monstrously. If Mr.Swan, with an eloquent gesture, had not silenced me, I might have made my little speech--good heavens! what _did_ I mean to say ?--and probably called it another feather in my bonnet. But he had stopped me promptly, disgusted with my forwardness, and he had shown before all those hundreds what he thought of me. Therein lay the sting. For years--actually for years--after that eventful day of mingled triumph and disgrace, I could not think of the unhappy incident without inward squirming. |