He thought he would wait till then.

He breathed a long sigh of relief, in the quiet darkness now, at the thought that he had not done it.

He had a haunting presentiment that neither in the purple heather, any more than in a London ball-room, would he be able to pass beyond that "certain point" to which, in divers companionship, with or without assistance, he had so often attained.
For Charles was genuinely anxious to marry.

He regarded with the greatest interest every eligible and ineligible young woman whom he came across.

If Lady Mary had been aware of the very serious light in which he had considered Miss Louisa Smith, youngest daughter of a certain curate Smith, who in his youth had been originally extracted from a refreshment-room at Liverpool to become an ornament of the Church, that lady would have swooned with horror.