It was evidently so refreshing to his worried spirit that it made him forget the advisability of a little caution with a complete stranger.

But really with Mr.Powell there was no danger.

Amused, at first, at these plaints, he provoked them for fun.

Afterwards, turning them over in his mind, he became impressed, and as the impression grew stronger with the days his resolution to keep it to himself grew stronger too.
* * * * * What made it all the easier to keep--I mean the resolution--was that Powell's sentiment of amused surprise at what struck him at first as mere absurdity was not unmingled with indignation.

And his years were too few, his position too novel, his reliance on his own opinion not yet firm enough to allow him to express it with any effect.