But of all this no hint had crept into his speech.

"He tried to bite off my nose," he concluded.
"Oh," the girl said, in a faint, far voice, and he noticed the shock in her sensitive face.
He felt a shock himself, and a blush of embarrassment shone faintly on his sunburned cheeks, though to him it burned as hotly as when his cheeks had been exposed to the open furnace-door in the fire-room.

Such sordid things as stabbing affrays were evidently not fit subjects for conversation with a lady.

People in the books, in her walk of life, did not talk about such things--perhaps they did not know about them, either.
There was a brief pause in the conversation they were trying to get started.

Then she asked tentatively about the scar on his cheek.