Not that he had planned definitely to speak to her of his discovery, nor yet that he had planned not to.

He had, indeed, planned nothing.

For a man usually so decided as to purpose and energetic as to action, he was in a most unhappy state of uncertainty and changeableness.

One thing only was unmistakably clear to him, and that was that he must see Alice.
For months, now, he had taken to Alice all his hopes and griefs, perplexities and problems; and never had he failed to find comfort in the shape of sympathetic understanding and wise counsel.

To Alice, therefore, now he turned as a matter of course, telling himself vaguely that, perhaps, after he had seen Alice, he would feel better.
Just how intimately this particular problem of his concerned Alice herself, he did not stop to realize.