Had she been different, and differently placed, he would have blindly tried for anything he could get, in any possible way.

But, as she was ?...

He felt convinced he could never succeed in making her care for him; there was not the slightest chance of it.

And, supposing even that he could?
And here came in the delicacy and scruple of the man who had been married himself.

He thought he wouldn't even wish to spoil, by the vulgarity of compromising, or by the shadow of a secret, the serenity of her face, the gay prettiness of that life.