He simply retreated into his library as into a fortified camp, intrenching himself behind a barricade of books, and refusing to skirmish with the enemy in the open.

And to every assault made by his family he replied with a violent fit of coughing.

A well-authenticated lung-disease is a formidable weapon in domestic warfare.
At last he yielded.

Not to time, nor yet to Tyson, nor yet to his wife's logic, but to the importunities of his lung-disease.

Other causes may have contributed; he was a man of obstinate affections, and he had loved his daughter.
It was considered right that the faults of the dead (his unreasonable obstinacy, for instance) should be forgiven and forgotten.