When he allowed himself to think she had been in league with Tregear he had wronged her.

He wiped away the beads from his brow, and again repeated to himself those words which were now his only comfort, "There should not have been a moment;--not a moment!" It was thus and only thus that he was enabled to assure himself that there need be no acknowledgment of wrong done on his part.

Having settled this in his own mind he forced himself to attend a meeting at which his assistance had been asked as to a complex question on Law Reform.

The Duke endeavoured to give himself up entirely to the matter; but through it all there was the picture before him of Mrs.
Finn waiting for an answer to her letter.

If he should confirm himself in his opinion that he had been right, then would any answer be necessary?
He might just acknowledge the letter, after the fashion which has come up in official life, than which silence is an insult much more bearable.