She would have told you herself; but I said that I would--that I must be brave....

I must learn to be brave....

I can tell you no more." He lifted her hands and stood up.
"I see that I understand nothing that you say after all," he said with a fine fatherly dignity.

"I must talk with your mother." II He found his wife half an hour later in the ladies' parlour, which he entered with an air as of nothing to say.

With the same air of disengagement he made sure that Marjorie was nowhere in the room, and presently sat down.
Mrs.Manners was well past her prime.