At first, everything in the room seemed to rest on Philip’s reputation. He was spoken of with the kind of respect usually reserved for men who carry authority before they even open their mouths. The Duchess had praised him warmly, and Philip answered with the calm certainty of someone who believed experience had already made the decision for everyone else. He even recalled telling the Duchess, when she was newly married, not to fear: he would “get a baby out of you one way or another.” The memory was crude, confident, and oddly revealing, because it showed exactly how this man worked—less by delicacy than by forceful assurance.