Mrs. Sylvester allowed her eyes to remain in discreet observation of the tablecloth.
"I have often thought so," she said at last quietly.
"Indeed!" he remarked politely. "Yes; it is a matter, perhaps, which I should have discussed with you before. I am fully aware of the right you have—— I would not, I mean, have failed——"
"Oh, my son!" she protested, "I am sure you have always been most correct."
"I have tried to be," he said simply. "If I have said nothing to you, it has been because I wished to be cautious, not to commit myself, to be very sure——"
"Of the lady's affection, do you mean?"
"Ah, can one ever be sure of that? No; I mean rather of my own attitude, of my own situation. It has always seemed to me that marriage is a very great undertaking, a thing to be immensely considered, not to be embarked on rashly."
"You view everything so justly!" she exclaimed. "Have you—am I to understand that you have a particular person in view?"
He waved aside the compliment with a bland gesture, which asserted that only his magnanimity prevented him from acknowledging its truth.
"Surely, surely!" he said. "You are perhaps aware how immensely I admire Miss Masters; that I have paid her very great attention—marked attention, I may say?"