All his life he had lived too near the raw edge of practical things to dissipate in gossipy conjecture.

He cared nothing about the relationship between Mary Standish and Rossland except as it involved himself, and the situation had become a trifle too delicate to please him.

He could see no sport in an adventure of the kind it suggested, and the possibility that he had been misjudged by both Rossland and Mary Standish sent a flush of anger into his cheeks.

He cared nothing for Rossland, except that he would like to wipe him out of existence with all other Graham agents.

And he persisted in the conviction that he thought of the girl only in a most casual sort of way.