But this visit, and Harriet's demeanour throughout it, revived all his anxieties.

He came back from accompanying his cousin part of her way home in a very uneasy frame of mind.

What could he do to disabuse the poor girl of the unhappy hopes she entertained?
The thought of giving pain to any most humble creature was itself a pain unendurable to Julian.

His was one of those natures to which self-sacrifice is infinitely easier than the idea of sacrificing another to his own desires or even necessities, a vice of weakness often more deeply and widely destructive than the vices of strength.
The visit having been paid, it was arranged that on the following Sunday Julian should meet his cousin at the end of Gray's Inn Road as usual.

On that day the weather was fine, but Harriet came out in no mood for a walk.