"I'm a bachelor but not I might add a lonely one. I spend a great deal of time abroad and as for my London life, well, it amuses me, but it's not the sort of amusement that one could suitably share with children. In brief Miss Giddens, I'm a very selfish fellow, and the last man alive to be saddled so suddenly and so awkwardly with two orphaned infants. It's most unfortunate, as I have no room for them mentally or emotionally. Does that seem quite heartless?"