f-consciousness,
there was a traditional atmosphere of agitation and alarm, a kind of
conventional awkwardness, together with an anxious countenance, and
protection sedulously afforded by the initiated and interested
spectators to Tom and Dora, which, like many other instances of
countenance and protection, went far towards doing the mischief they
were intended to prevent.

Tom saw through the punctilious feints and solemn stratagems clearly;
Dora did the same as plainly. Indeed the two would have been idiots if
they could have escaped from the discomfiting perception of the care
which was taken of them and their feelings, and the fact that every eye
was upon them.

The sole result was to render the couple more wretchedly uncomfortable
than if they had been set aside and sentenced to the company of each
other and of no one else for a bad five minutes every day of their
lives.

Another unhappy consequence of their being thus elaborately spared and
shielded was, that when by some unfortunate chance the tactics failed,
the couple felt as flurried and guilty as if they had contrived the
fruitless accident to serve their own nefarious ends.

Tom Robinson called on the Millars between four and five the day after
May had made her raid upon him, expecting to find what was left of the
family gathering together for afternoon tea. He had the ulterior design
of drawing May's father and mother apart, and letting them judge for
themselves the advisability of her going up at once to St. Ambrose's,
before her whole heart and mind were disastrously set against her
natural and honourable destiny. He was distinctly put out by finding
Dora alone. As for Dora, she told a faltering tale of her father's
having been called away to a poor patient who was a pensioner of her
mother's, and of Mrs. Millar's having walked over to Stokeleigh with
him to see what she could do for old Hannah Lightfoot; while May was
spending the afternoon with the Hewetts at the Rectory.

He hesitated whether to go or stay under the circumstances, but he hated
to beat an ignominious retreat, as if _he_ thought that _she_ thought he
could not be beside her for a quarter of an hour without making an ass
of himself again and pestering her. Why should he not accept the cup of
tea which she faintly offered from the hands that visibly trembled with
nervousness? When he came to consider it, why should he not transact his
business with Dora? She was as deeply interested