Mrs.Cowperwood was no longer what she should be physically and mentally, and that in itself to him was sufficient to justify his present interest in this girl.

Why fear anything, if only he could figure out a way to achieve it without harm to himself?
At the same time he thought it might never be possible for him to figure out any practical or protective program for either himself or Aileen, and that made him silent and reflective.

For by now he was intensely drawn to her, as he could feel--something chemic and hence dynamic was uppermost in him now and clamoring for expression.
At the same time, in contemplating his wife in connection with all this, he had many qualms, some emotional, some financial.

While she had yielded to his youthful enthusiasm for her after her husband's death, he had only since learned that she was a natural conservator of public morals--the cold purity of the snowdrift in so far as the world might see, combined at times with the murky mood of the wanton.

And yet, as he had also learned, she was ashamed of the passion that at times swept and dominated her.