As for Jenny, she would not suffer much.

There had not been time enough.

Not in a day does a man or woman have that effect produced upon the heart which lasts forever.
So, were he to disappear from the affair, nothing very serious, nothing affecting materially the whole of any life would follow.

The odds were against him, or rather against the worst side of him, in the reflection.
He acted promptly.

"I don't know about it," he said; "I'm puzzled.