She stopped and, looking round her for a cab, sighted one in the distance.

He was thus precipitated into speech.
"Should you mind if we walked a little farther ?" he asked.

"There's something I want to say to you." "Very well," she replied, guessing that his request had something to do with Mary Datchet.
"It's quieter by the river," he said, and instantly he crossed over.

"I want to ask you merely this," he began.

But he paused so long that she could see his head against the sky; the slope of his thin cheek and his large, strong nose were clearly marked against it.