It isn't that I was unfaithful to little Fyne out in the porch with the dog.

(They kept amazingly quiet there.

Could they have gone to sleep ?) What I felt was that either my sagacity or my conscience would come out damaged from that campaign.

And no man will willingly put himself in the way of moral damage.

I did not want a war with Mrs.Fyne.
I much preferred to hear something more of the girl.