He could not find a calm word, nor was it indeed possible to communicate to Mrs.Baxendale the suspicion which occupied him.

She, watching him as he stood at a distance, all but forgot her anxious trouble in admiration of the splendid passion which had transformed his features.

Wilfrid looked his best when thus stirred--his best, from a woman's point of view.

The pale cast of thought was far from him; you saw the fiery nature asserting itself, and wondered in what direction these energies would at length find scope.
Mrs.Baxendale, not exactly an impressionable woman, had a moment of absent-mindedness.
'Come here and sit down,' she said, the motherly insistance of the tone possibly revealing her former thought.
He threw himself on the couch.
'Of course,' she continued, 'this must remain between Emily and yourself my own relations to her must be precisely as they have been, as if I had heard nothing.

Now I think we may conclude that the poor girl is perfectly aware of what she is doing, but I no more than yourself believe her explanation.