What did it matter on what subject they talked?
Verity or Cedric or Lincoln's Inn--anything that interested him would interest her.

When Malcolm held forth on his favourite theories, Anna would listen with unflagging attention, and never once hint at her lack of comprehension, although the effort to understand him had made her head ache.

The very sound of his voice was music in her ears, and this unconscious flattery was very soothing to his masculine intellect.
Malcolm, who had masterful ways of his own, was bent on convincing Anna that she was wrong in her estimate of Verity Keston, and he was very willing at this moment to tell her all he knew of her.
"I have heard all about things from Goliath," he began, "and Verity often talks about her old life to me.

Neither of them make any secret about it.

She was only seven or eight when he first saw her; she had just lost her mother.