As to the threat of publicity, the probability, he thought, was that it would lead to nothing.

He doubted whether any respectable newspaper would insert such a statement as that suggested.

Were it published, the evil must be borne.

No diligence on her part, or on the part of her lawyers, could prevent it.
But what had she meant when she wrote of continual sin, sin not to be avoided, of sin repeated daily which nevertheless weighed her to the ground?
Was it expected of him that he should answer that portion of her letter?
It amounted to a passionate renewal of that declaration of affection for himself which she had made at Koenigstein, and which had pervaded her whole life since some period antecedent to her wretched marriage.

Phineas, as he thought of it, tried to analyse the nature of such a love.