All his life, his habits had been a source of consternation to his parents. To others, they had been cause for contempt. Jonathan’s ears still burned with some of the insults that had been hurled at him in school. Miss Tilney either would be bewildered or would laugh at him; his modest hopes were for the former. Instead, she said, “You need not have left the room to accomplish that. I would not have minded it.” Jonathan wondered if she had misheard him. Or perhaps he was the one who had misheard her? “You would not?” “It is peculiar, of course,” Miss Tilney said, “but my mother has often told
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