The comparative stateliness of the apartments influenced him to an emotion, rather than to a belief, that where all was outwardly so good and proper there could not be quite that delinquency within which he had suspected.

It occurred to him, too, that even if his suspicion were justified, his abrupt, if not unwarrantable, entry into the house might end in confounding its inhabitant at the expense of his daughter's dignity and his own.

Any ill result would be pretty sure to hit Grace hardest in the long-run.

He would, after all, adopt the more rational course, and plead with Fitzpiers privately, as he had pleaded with Mrs.
Charmond.
He accordingly retreated as silently as he had come.

Passing the door of the drawing-room anew, he fancied that he heard a noise within which was not the crackling of the fire.