In fact, were it not for Ruth herself, no consideration for Charles' feelings would have prevented Jed's taking the matter up with the young man and warning him that, unless he made a clean breast to the captain and Maud, he--Jed-- would do it for him.

The happiness of two such friends should not be jeopardized if he could prevent it.
But there was Ruth.

She, not her brother, was primarily responsible for obtaining for him the bank position and obtaining it under fake pretenses.

And she, according to her own confession to Jed, had urged upon Charles the importance of telling no one.
Jed himself would have known nothing, would have had only a vague, indefinite suspicion, had she not taken him into her confidence.
And to him that confidence was precious, sacred.

If Charlie's secret became known, it was not he alone who would suffer; Ruth, too, would be disgraced.