I caused him embarrassment enough as it was, I am sure. I never saw such faltering, such confusion, such amazement and apprehension.
“Miss Summerson,” stammered Mr. Guppy, “I—I—beg your pardon, but in our profession—we—we—find it necessary to be explicit. You have referred to an occasion, miss, when I—when I did myself the honour of making a declaration which—”
Something seemed to rise in his throat that he could not possibly swallow. He put his hand there, coughed, made faces, tried again to swallow it, coughed again, made faces again, looked all round the room, and fluttered his papers.
“A kind of giddy sensation has come upon me, miss,” he explained, “which rather knocks me over. I—er—a little subject to this sort of thing—er—by George!”
I gave him a little time to recover. He consumed it in putting his hand to his forehead and taking it away again, and in backing his chair