] Every now and then you come across, in a piece of literature, a phrase or paragraph that reaches out and grabs you and makes you physically ill because you know exactly how awful the hero/herione feels...

] "You have not!" cried Catherine.

Oh, but he had...and I, like you, felt awful for her. I think it's even more endearing that even when she is exclaiming, even when she is upset, her words are every bit as sanguine as she usually is; even though she must know that he speaks the truth, she says that it couldn't possibly be so.

] Poor Catherine!! My, how I want to run over JT with a tank or something! What awfulness, what horridness, what Thorpeness!

Ah, yes! The very word. And I can think of no better usage for a steamroller, except perhaps to build a No-John-Thorpe-and-his-horses-allowed road. ;-) There ought to be one place at least where he and his beasts will not be a menace. ;-)