And Stewart realized that his silence under such circumstances would look decidedly small and ungrateful to the girl.

To have the story told at this critical moment was altogether worse than if he had generously told of the incident at once.

He saw, too, that Sammy guessed at some thing beneath the surface, and he felt uneasy in remaining until Young Matt came back to renew the conversation.
And yet he feared to leave.

At this stage of his dilemma, he was relieved from his plight in a very unexpected manner..