He merely put on an air of perplexity and shook his head in token of non-compliance." Such was my friend's account of this interview.

His suspicions were unquestionably plausible; but I was disposed to put a more favourable construction on Mervyn's behaviour.

I recollected the desolate and penniless condition in which I found him, and the uniform complacency and rectitude of his deportment for the period during which we had witnessed it.

These ideas had considerable influence on my judgment, and indisposed me to follow the advice of my friend, which was to turn him forth from my doors that very night.
My wife's prepossessions were still more powerful advocates of this youth.

She would vouch, she said, before any tribunal, for his innocence; but she willingly concurred with me in allowing him the continuance of our friendship on no other condition than that of a disclosure of the truth.