But he kept it back.

As a prudent diplomat, he knew that it is often more politic to destroy a thing by ignoring it, than to enter into an open contest with it.

The feelings are like the dragons' teeth of Theseus.
If you contend with them, they always grow again anew, and with renewed energy, out of the soil.

Lord Douglas, therefore, was very careful not to notice his daughter's confusion.

"Pardon me, my daughter, if, in my zeal and my tender care for you, I go too far.