He was alone with the Duchess.

The doors were closed, and the world shut out by her own order.

She leaned against the high back of her chair, watching him intently as she listened.

He walked slowly up and down the room with long paces.

He had been doing it for some time and he had told her from beginning to end the singular story of what had happened when he found Robin lying face downward on the moss in Mersham Wood.
This is what he was saying in a low, steady voice.
"She had not once thought of what most women would have thought of before anything else.