She had heard that he was unscrupulous--vague charges that he had never been able to repel--yet she was conscious now of a secret wish to protect him from the consequences of his duplicity, as she might have wished to protect an irresponsible child.

Some mysterious sense perception made her aware that beneath what appeared to be discreditable public actions there was the simple bed-rock of honesty.

For the quality she felt in Vetch was a profound moral integrity, an integrity which was bred by nature in the innermost fibre of the man.
"If you will tell me--" she began, and checked herself with a sensation of helplessness.

After all, what could he tell her that she did not know?
"I want to do what is right for her," he said abruptly.

"I should hate for her to be hurt." While he talked it seemed to Corinna that she was living in some absurd comedy, which mimicked life but was only acting, not reality.