Had he been now a free man--free from those chains with which he had fettered himself at Stratton--he would again have asked this woman for her love, in spite of her past treachery; but it would have been for her love, and not for her money, that he would have sought her.

Was it his fault that he had loved her, that she had been false to him, and that she had now come back and thrown herself before him?
or had he been wrong because he had ventured to think that he loved another when Julia had deserted him?
Or could he help himself if he now found that his love in truth belonged to her whom he had known first?
The world had been very cruel to him, and he could not go to Onslow Crescent, and behave there prettily, hearing the praises of Florence with all the ardor of a discreet lover.
He knew well what would have been his right course, and yet he did not follow it.

Let him but once communicate to Lady Ongar the fact of his engagement, and the danger would be over, though much, perhaps, of the misery might remain.

Let him write to her, and mention the fact, bringing it up as some little immaterial accident, and she would understand what he meant.

But this he abstained from doing.