"Have you seen Letty ?" she asked.
"Letty ?" said Miss Annie.

"Oh, yes," she added, as if she suddenly remembered that such a person existed, "Letty was at church, and she was very active." "Well," said the old lady, "she must have taken more interest in the exercises than you did, for it is long past the time when I told her she must be home." "I do not believe, madam," said Lawrence, "that any one could have taken more interest in the exercises of this morning, than we have." At this, Annie could not help giving him a little look which would have provoked reflection in the mind of the old lady, had she not been very earnestly engaged in gazing out into the road, in the hope of seeing Letty.
When Lawrence had gone into the office, and had closed the door behind him, he stood in a meditative mood before the empty fireplace.

He was making inquiries of himself in regard to what he had just done.

He was not accusing himself, nor indulging in regrets; he was simply investigating the matter.

Here he stood, a man accepted by two women.
If he had ever heard of any other man in a like condition, he would have called that man a scoundrel, and yet he did not deem himself a scoundrel.
The facts in the case were easy enough to understand.