It must therefore be conceived that he did not admit to himself that he warmly admired the beauty of a married woman without heart-felt stings of conscience; and to pacify that conscience he had to teach himself that the nature of his admiration was innocent.
And thus he rode along meditative and ill at ease.

His conscience had not a word to say against his choosing the widow and her fortune.
That he looked upon as a godly work rather than otherwise; as a deed which, if carried through, would redound to his credit as a Christian.

On that side lay no future remorse, no conduct which he might probably have to forget, no inward stings.

If it should turn out to be really the fact that Mrs.Bold had twelve hundred a year at her own disposal, Mr.Slope would rather look upon it as a duty which he owed his religion to make himself the master of the wife and the money; as a duty too, in which some amount of self-sacrifice would be necessary.

He would have to give up his friendship with the signora, his resistance to Mr.Harding, his antipathy--no, he found on mature self-examination that he could not bring himself to give up his antipathy to Dr.Grantly.He would marry the lady as the enemy of her brother-in-law if such an arrangement suited her; if not, she must look elsewhere for a husband.
It was with such resolve as this that he reached Barchester.