He wasn't the man to make confidants of women.

She gave the message to the son, not knowing what it meant, probably.

Why, he wouldn't have dared to tell her! And then inviting Cornelia--no, no! I've had some acquaintance with Margaret, and, with all her nonsense, I believe she's honest.

Besides, what interest could she have to be otherwise?
To be sure, she didn't give me the true reason for the _incognito_; but that's nothing; she's just the woman to tell a useless fib, and reserve the truth for important occasions only--or what she thinks such." The professor remained a while longer at the window, abstractedly staring at the drops which hastened after one another from the wet eaves.

Suddenly he turned around, and walked up to the table, flapping his slipper-heels, and settling his spectacles, as he went.
"Did any one ever speak to you of your mother, sir ?" demanded he in the ear of the reading Bressant.