He had left them with Mrs.
Peyton in the briefest preliminary interview, during which he spoke only of the catastrophe, shielding the woman from the presumption of having provoked it, and urging only the importance of settling the question of guardianship at once.

It was odd that Mrs.Peyton had been less disturbed than he imagined she would be at even his charitable version of Susy's unfaithfulness to her; it even seemed to him that she had already suspected it.

But as he was about to withdraw to leave her to meet them alone, she had stopped him suddenly.
"What would you advise me to do ?" It was his first interview with her since the revelation of his own feelings.

He looked into the pleading, troubled eyes of the woman he now knew he had loved, and stammered:-- "You alone can judge.

Only you must remember that one cannot force an affection any more than one can prevent it." He felt himself blushing, and, conscious of the construction of his words, he even fancied that she was displeased.
"Then you have no preference ?" she said, a little impatiently.
"None." She made a slight gesture with her handsome shoulders, but she only said, "I should have liked to have pleased you in this," and turned coldly away.