It struck him, too, as discouraging that he should be able to know so little about a girl he had loved in a vague way so long, and now for a time so ardently, and who had dwelt for months at his very door.

He blamed the conventionalities of society that made it impossible for him to ask her the thousand and one questions he fain would ask, that refused him permission to ask any until he was prepared to make that offer which involved the explanation from which he shrank so much that he would fain know precisely what degree of evil he must ask her to face before he asked at all.

He told himself that he shrank not so much on account of his own dislike, as on account of the difficulty in which his offer and explanation must place her if she loved him; for if she was not bound strongly by the prejudices of her class, all those she cared for certainly were.

On the other hand, if she did not love him, then, indeed, he had reason to shrink from an interview that would be the taking away of all his hope.

Who would not wrestle hard with hope and fear before facing such an alternative?
Certainly not a man of Trenholme's stamp.
It is a mistake to suppose that decision and fearlessness are always the attributes of strength.