Why, then, should he still be concerned in a matter so distasteful to him?
Why should he not wipe his hands of it all and retreat?
There was no act of parliament compelling him to meddle with the dirt.
Such were his thoughts.

But yet he knew that he was compelled.

He did feel himself bound to look after interests which he had taken in hand now for many years.

It had been his duty,--or the duty of some one belonging to him,--to see into the deceit by which an attempt had been made to rob Augustus Scarborough of his patrimony.

It had been his duty, for a while, to protect Mountjoy, and the creditors who had lent their money to Mountjoy, from what he had believed to be a flagitious attempt.
Then, as soon as he felt that the flagitious attempt had been made previously, in Mountjoy's favor, it became his duty to protect Augustus, in spite of the strong personal dislike which from the first he had conceived for that young man.
And then he doubtless had been attracted by the singularity of all that had been done in the affair, and of all that was likely to be done.