"If you will wait here, she will be back directly." The effort of hiding her agitation from him had brought a passing color into her cheeks.

Worn and wasted as she was, the spell of her beauty was strong enough to hold him against his own will.

All he had to tell Lady Janet was that he had met one of the gardeners in the conservatory, and had cautioned him as well as the lodge-keeper.

It would have been easy to write this, and to send the note to his aunt on quitting the house.
For the sake of his own peace of mind, for the sake of his duty to Horace, he was doubly bound to make the first polite excuse that occurred to him, and to leave her as he had found her, alone in the room.

He made the attempt, and hesitated.