He stops in his rubbing and looks at her, with his hands on his knees.  Imperturbable and unchangeable as he is, there is still an indefinable freedom in his manner which is new and which does not escape this woman’s observation.

“I do not quite understand you.”

“Oh, yes you do, I think.  I think you do.  Come, come, Lady Dedlock, we must not fence and parry now.  You know you like this girl.”

“Well, sir?”

“And you know—­and I know—­that you have not sent her away for the reasons you have assigned, but for the purpose of separating her as much as possible from—­excuse my mentioning it as a matter of business—­any reproach and exposure that impend over yourself.”

“Well, sir?”

“Well, Lady Dedlock,” returns the lawyer, crossing his legs and nursing the uppermost knee.  “I object to that.  I consider that a dangerous proceeding.  I know it to be unnecessary and calculated to awaken speculation, doubt, rumour, I don’t know what, in the house.  Besides, it is a violation of our agreement.  You were to be exactly what you were before.  Whereas, it must be evident to yourself, as it is to me, that you have been this evening very different from what you were before.  Why, bless my soul, Lady Dedlock, transparently so!”

“If, sir,” she begins, “in my knowledge of my secret—­” But he interrupts her.

“Now, Lady Dedlock, this is a matter of business, and in a matter of business the ground cannot be kept too clear.  It is no longer your secret.  Excuse me.  That is just the mistake.  It is my secret, in trust for Sir Leicester and the family.  If it were your secret, Lady Dedlock, we should not be here holding this conversation.”

“That is very true.  If in my knowledge of the secret I do what I can to spare an innocent girl (especially, remembering your own reference to her when you told my story to the assembled guests at Chesney Wold) from the taint of my impending shame, I act upon a resolution I have taken.  Nothing in the world, and no one in the world, could shake it or could move me.”  This she says with great deliberation and distinctness and with no more outward passion than himself.  As for him, he methodically discusses his matter of business as if she were any insensible instrument used in business.

“Really?  Then you see, Lady Dedlock,” he returns, “you are not to be trusted.  You have put the case in a perfectly plain way, and according to the literal fact; and that being the case, you are not to be trusted.”

“Perhaps you may remember that I expressed some anxiety on this same point when we spoke at night at Chesney Wold?”