He was courteous, careful of his speech, and mindful of the young man's devotion to Kate, whose guardian for the time being he was, but he neither encouraged nor thwarted his suit.

Kate was of age and was fully competent to decide for herself--extremely competent, for that matter.
How little this clear reader of women's hearts--and scores had been spread out before him--knew of Kate's, no one but the girl herself could have told.

That she was adrift on an open sea without a rudder, and that she had already begun to lose confidence both in her seamanship and in her compass, was becoming more and more apparent to her every day she lived.

All she knew positively was that she had been sailing before the wind for some weeks past with everything flying loose, and that the time had now come for her either to "go about" or keep on her course.
Her suitor's family she had carefully considered.

She had also studied his environment and the impression he made upon those who had known him longest:--she must now focus her mental lenses on the man himself.