How did it come that he had yielded so easily to the invitation of Lord Earlscourt to accompany him on his cruise in the yacht _Water Nymph_?
(Lord Earlscourt's imagination in the direction of the nomenclature of his boats as well as his horses was not unlimited.) But this was just the question which her father had suggested as an example of a subject of profitless discussion.

She remembered this, and asked herself if it was likely that she, having at her command fewer data than her father bearing upon this case, should make a better attempt than he made at its solution.

Her father had seen Herbert Courtland since he had agreed to go on the cruise, and was therefore in the better position to arrive at a reasonable conclusion in regard to the source of the impulse upon which Mr.Courtland had acted; so much she thought certain.

And yet her father had suggested the profitless nature of such an investigation, and her father was certainly right.
Only for a single moment did it occur to her that something she had said to Herbert Courtland when he was sitting there, there in that chair beside her, might have had its influence upon him--only for a single moment, however; then she shook her head.
No, no! that supposition was too, too ridiculous to be entertained for a moment.

He had, to be sure, shown that he felt deeply the words which she had quoted as they came from Mrs.Haddon; but what could those words have to do with his sudden acceptance of Lord Earlscourt's invitation to go to Norway?
She made up her mind that it was nothing to her what course Herbert Courtland had pursued, consequently the endeavors to fathom his reason for adopting such a course would be wholly profitless.