She was silent. He witnessed her indecision with distrust. Perhaps he had said too much.
"Won't you promise? Haven't I always been kind to you, Fortune, times when you most needed kindness?"
"I promise to say nothing. But if any harm comes to that young man, either in jest or in earnest, I will never speak to you again."
"I see that, after getting Percival Algernon into an adventure, I've got to cicerone him safely out of it. Well, I accept the responsibility." Some days later he was going to recall this assurance.
"Sometimes I wonder...." pensively.
"Wonder about what?"
"What manner of man you are."
"I should have been a great deal better man had I met you ten years ago."
"What? When I was eleven?" with a levity intended to steer him away from this channel.
"You know what I mean," he answered, moody and dejected.