If she chose to rebel against her own good fortune simply because he spoke to her a few words which seemed to him to be fitting, might it not be well for him to take her at her word?
Such were his first thoughts; but as the day wore on with him, something more generous in his nature came to his aid, and something also that was akin to real love.

Now that she was no longer his own, he again felt a desire to have her.

Now that there would be again something to be done in winning her, he was again stirred by a man's desire to do that something.

He ought not to have told her of the promise.

He was aware that what he had said on that point had been dropped by him accidentally, and that Clara's resolution after that had not been unnatural.