"Sit down—I shall not be long."
Stowell felt his heart sink in advance. Never would he be able to say what he had come to say.
"Well, you gave us the slip nicely, didn't you?" said the Governor, raising his head from his papers.
"I'm sorry, Sir," said Stowell (he felt his lip trembling). "It was an important matter, and I've come to town to-day to ask your advice on it."
"Something you've been consulted about?"
"Well .... yes."
"I'm no authority on law, you know."
"It's not so much a matter of law, Sir, as of morality—what an honourable man ought to do under difficult circumstances."
The Governor looked up sharply. Stowell struggled on.
"A client .... I should say a friend .... engaged himself to a young woman awhile ago, and now, owing to circumstances which have arisen since, he finds it difficult to decide whether it is his duty to marry her."