It was some distance to that tavern. He talked all the way of
matters which did not interest me the smallest, and at the door
dismissed me with empty manners. Thence I walked to my new
lodging, where I had not so much as a chimney to hold me warm, and
no society but my own thoughts. These were still bright enough; I
did not so much as dream that Catriona was turned against me; I
thought we were like folk pledged; I thought we had been too near
and spoke too warmly to be severed, least of all by what were only
steps in a most needful policy. And the chief of my concern was
only the kind of father-in-law that I was getting, which was not at
all the kind I would have chosen: and the matter of how soon I
ought to speak to him, which was a delicate point on several sides.
In the first place, when I thought how young I was I blushed all
over, and could almost have found it in my heart to have desisted;
only that if once I let them go from Leyden without explanation, I
might lose her altogether. And in the second place, there was our
very irregular situation to be kept in view, and the rather scant
measure of satisfaction I had given James More that morning.
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