'Please warn and protect.' And Helen replied that she would always do her best for him.
It had never occurred to Gerald to turn the tables on Helen and tell her that she ought to marry.

His imagination was not occupied with Helen's state, though once, after a conversation with old Miss Buchanan, he remarked to Helen, looking at her with a vague curiosity, that it was a pity she hadn't taken Lord Henry or Mr.Fergusson.

'Miss Buchanan tells me you might have been one of the first hostesses in London if you hadn't thrown away your chances.' 'I'm all right,' said Helen.
'Yes, you yourself are; but after she dies ?' Helen owned, with a smile, that she could certainly do with some few thousands a year; but that, in default of them, she could manage to scrape along.
'But you've never had any better chances, have you ?' said Gerald rather tentatively.

He might confide everything in Helen, but he realised, as a restraining influence, that she never made any confidences, even to him, who, he was convinced, knew her down to the ground.
Helen owned that she hadn't.
'Your aunt thinks it a dreadful pity.

She's very much worried about you.' 'It's late in the day for the poor dear to worry.