It had not occurred to him to plan in any way for her absence--which would have destroyed, somehow, in principle, the propriety of his own presence.

If persons under his roof hadn't a right not to go to church, what became, for a fair mind, of his own right?
His subtlest manoeuvre had been simply to change from the library to the billiard-room, it being in the library that his guest, or his daughter's, or the guest of the Miss Lutches--he scarce knew in which light to regard her--had then, and not unnaturally, of course, joined him.

It was urged on him by his memory of the duration of the visit she had that time, as it were, paid him, that the law of recurrence would already have got itself enacted.

She had spent the whole morning with him, was still there, in the library, when the others came back--thanks to her having been tepid about their taking, Mr.Verver and she, a turn outside.

It had been as if she looked on that as a kind of subterfuge--almost as a form of disloyalty.