as slightly grim. She was young, untried, nervous: it was a vision
of serious duties and little company, of really great loneliness.
She hesitated--took a couple of days to consult and consider.
But the salary offered much exceeded her modest measure,
and on a second interview she faced the music, she engaged."
And Douglas, with this, made a pause that, for the benefit
of the company, moved me to throw in--

"The moral of which was of course the seduction exercised by the splendid
young man. She succumbed to it."

He got up and, as he had done the night before, went to the fire,
gave a stir to a log with his foot, then stood a moment with his back to us.
"She saw him only twice."

"Yes, but that's just the beauty of her passion."

A little to my surprise, on this, Douglas turned round to me.
"It WAS the beauty of it. There were others," he went on,
"who hadn't succumbed. He told her frankly all his difficulty--
that for several applicants the conditions had been prohibitive.
They were, somehow, simply afraid. It sounded dull--it sounded strange;
and all the more so because of his main condition."

"Which was--?"

"That she should never trouble him--but never, never:
neither appeal nor complain nor write about anything;
only meet all questions herself, receive all moneys from
his solicitor, take the whole thing over and let him alone.