He seemed greatly disturbed. "I feel as if I was to blame, in bringing him here," he said. "But I never thought--" "Well, it's natural that you should take that view, at first. I took it myself when I first had their letters. It was about the biggest startler I've ever had. But you know Caroline, James. She loves him. If you can find the answer to the riddle why she loves him, for yourself--!" "That's not very difficult. He saved her life, and nearly lost his own in doing it. She's been looking after him. Women are like that, and young girls especially. You don't have to know much about them to see that; there are thousands of instances." "That's what it will look like to everybody, I know. But it wouldn't be enough for Caroline." "Caroline's one of the best girls that ever stepped. All your girls are; they're quite out of the common. But human nature works in them just the same as in anybody else. Why, you've seen it yourself, in Beatrix. She fell in love with a wrong 'un. You stopped that; and now she's got the right man. Supposing _she'd_ married the first fellow she fell in love with!" "You say I stopped it. I've asked myself how much I had to do with stopping it. I got it put off. If he hadn't--" "Well, then, you ought to get this put off--at least. Bradby is a good enough fellow in his own class, but his class isn't Caroline's. That's plain enough! I can't understand your thinking about it all. There isn't a soul in the world who wouldn't think you were justified in stopping it--taking her away, or something; or telling me to clear him out. I'd do it like a shot." "It wouldn't make any difference. I've come to see that. I love my little B, but she isn't Caroline. _She_ might have fallen in love--she actually did--with a man who wasn't fit for her to marry. Caroline never would." "Beatrix would never have fallen in love with Bradby." "I know she wouldn't. She wouldn't have seen below the surface. Caroline does, and she finds something there that I confess I haven't been able to see hitherto. That's why I asked you at the beginning what you saw in him. Get rid of all the side issues. He's young; he isn't in a position to marry; he doesn't belong to our sort of people. What is he beneath all that? Or, if you like, what is he going to grow into?" "He's A1 at his work. I've never denied that. He'll get a good job by and bye, and be worth it; but not for a good many years yet." "That _is_ one of the side issues. Caroline wouldn't love him because he was likely to get a good job. What is he in himself? Come now, James, you're a man of some perception, and he has lived with you for over a year." "What is he in himself?" Worthing frowned, with the effort to direct his thoughts into the channels required of them. "You want me to give you excuses for accepting him," he said. "Not excuses; reasons. I'll tell you how Caroline sees him. Her words struck me. She said he was big and simple and direct."