He had neither said a word about his staying longer nor urged him to come back again, and there had been (it now seemed to Bernard) an audible undertone of relief in the single sentence with which he assented to his visitor's withdrawal.

Could it be possible that poor Gordon was jealous of him, that he had heard this loathsome gossip, or that his own observation had given him an alarm?
He had certainly never betrayed the smallest sense of injury; but it was to be remembered that even if he were uneasy, Gordon was quite capable, with his characteristic habit of weighing everything, his own honor included, in scrupulously adjusted scales, of denying himself the luxury of active suspicion.

He would never have let a half suspicion make a difference in his conduct, and he would not have dissimulated; he would simply have resisted belief.

His hospitality had been without a flaw, and if he had really been wishing Bernard out of his house, he had behaved with admirable self-control.

Bernard, however, followed this train of thought a very short distance.