The hope was sheer feebleness of spirit.

He spurned it; he desired no one's compassion.
How would Irene regard the fact of his illegitimacy?
Not, assuredly, from Mrs.Otway's point of view; she was a century ahead of that.
Possibly she was capable of dismissing it as indifferent.

But he could not be certain of her freedom from social prejudice.

He remembered the singular shock with which he himself had first learnt what he was; a state of mind quite irrational, but only to be dismissed with an effort of the trained intelligence.

Irene would undergo the same experience, and it might affect her thought of him for ever.
Not for one instant did he visit these troubles upon the dead man.