His reticence was partly the result of a constitutional indisposition to fuss, partly a desire to be spared the questions and surmises of vulgar curiosity, and partly that he never really believed he was going to do anything before it was done.
He did not like to think of Mliss.

It was a selfish instinct, perhaps, which made him try to fancy his feeling for the child was foolish, romantic, and unpractical.

He even tried to imagine that she would do better under the control of an older and sterner teacher.

Then she was nearly eleven, and in a few years, by the rules of Red Mountain, would be a woman.

He had done his duty.