"Come, come—you began with frankness, and I've only gone on with it.
You are a good-hearted fellow, and ought to be made something of."
"At all events, you make something of yourself, to talk of your own productions as the elixir vitae."
"You forget that I am in disgrace as well as yourself on that score; for I have not read a word of my own since the club began."
"Then how the devil should I be worse off than you?"
"I didn't say you were. I only said you did your best to place yourself at a disadvantage. I at least took a part in the affair, although a very humble one. But depend upon it, a girl like Miss Cathcart thinks more of mental gifts, than of any outward advantages which a man may possess; and in the company of those who think, a fellow's good looks don't go for much. She could not help measuring you by those other men—and women too. But you may console yourself with the reflection that there are plenty of girls, and pretty ones too, of a very different way of judging; and for my part you are welcome to the pick of them."
"You mean to say that I sha'n't have Addie?"
"Not in the least. But, come now—do you think yourself worthy of a girl like that?"
"No. Do you?"
"No. But I should not feel such a hypocrite if she thought me worthy, as to give her up on that ground."
"Then what do you mean?"