He observed it.

She replied not to his words, but to her own thought: "But, after all, it does seem hard." She added, with a little fervor, "But it wasn't poor Sir Charles's doing, after all." "He is content to reap the benefit," said Richard Bassett, sternly.
Then, finding he was making a sorry impression, he tried to get away from the subject.

I say tried, for till a man can double like a hare he will never get away from his hobby.

"Excuse me," said he; "I ought never to speak about it.

Let us talk of something else.