Now what could have been Harry's intention in calling upon the colonel?
Why, as he had said himself, to make an apology. But what kind of apology
could he make? Clearly there was only one that would satisfy all parties--
and that must be in the form of a request to be allowed to pay his
addresses--(that used to be the phrase in my time--I don't know the young
ladies' slang for it now-a-days)--to Adela. Did I say--_satisfy all
parties_? This was just the one form affairs might take, which would least
of all satisfy the colonel. I believe, with all his rigid proprieties, he
would have preferred the confession that the doctor had so far forgotten
himself as to attempt to snatch a kiss--a theft of which I cannot imagine
a gentleman guilty, least of all a doctor from his patient; which relation
no doubt the colonel persisted in regarding as the sole possible and
everlastingly permanent one between Adela and Harry. The former was,
however, the only apology Harry could make; and evidently the colonel
expected it when he refused to see him.

But why should he refuse to see him?--The doctor was not on an equality
with the colonel. Well, to borrow a form from the Shorter Catechism:
wherein consisted the difference between the colonel and the doctor?--The
difference between the colonel and the doctor consisted chiefly in this,
that whereas the colonel lived by the wits of his ancestors, Harry lived
by his own, and therefore was not so respectable as the colonel. Or in
other words: the colonel inherited a good estate, with the ordinary
quantity of brains; while Harry inherited a good education and an
extraordinary quantity of brains. So of course it was very presumptuous in
Harry to aspire to the hand of Miss Cathcart.

In the forenoon the curate called upon me, and was shown into the library
where I was.