"He'd be good-looking if he wasn't always so red in the face."
"If I was in his place I'd never go out without a veil."
"To hide his blushes?"
"Of course. What a pity he forgot to take his hat off in church last Sunday, until his mother nudged him."
"Yes. Did you hear it smash when he put his foot in it when he got up to go?"
Heavens and earth! There I was, under the bed, an enforced listener to this flattering conversation. My breast nearly burst with anger at them, at myself, at a cruel fate which had sent me into the world, doomed to grow up a bashful man. If, by falling one thousand feet plumb down, I could have sunk through that floor, I would have run the risk.
"You heard about the ba——" began Hetty.
It was too much! In my torment I moved my feet without meaning to, and they hit against the leg of the bedstead with some force.
"What's that?"
"A cat under the bed, I should say."