But as he thought of it all, he was not proud of himself.

He had received great kindness from their hands, and certainly owed them much in return.

When he had been a boy he had been treated almost as one of the family;--but as he had not been quite one of them, would it not have been natural that he should be absorbed in the manner proposed?
And then he could not but admit to himself that he had been deficient in proper courage when he had been first caught and taken into the cupboard.

On that occasion he had neither accepted nor rejected the young lady; and in such a matter as this silence certainly may be supposed to give consent.

Though he rejoiced in his escape he was not altogether proud of his conduct in reference to his friends at Babington.
Would it not have been better that he should have told his aunt frankly that his heart was engaged elsewhere?
The lady's name would have been asked, and the lady's name could not have been given.