The father, after all, reads in the same book in which the lover found his knowledge.
At first there was through all his love for his child a certain resentment of her sex.

His old hope of a son had been rooted too deeply to give way easily.

But when the conviction came, and with it the habit of its acknowledgment, there came also a certain resignation, which is the halting-place for satisfaction.

But he never, not then nor afterwards, quite lost the old belief that Stephen was indeed a son.
Could there ever have been a doubt, the remembrance of his wife's eyes and of her faint voice, of her hope and her faith, as she placed her baby in his arms would have refused it a resting-place.

This belief tinged all his after-life and moulded his policy with regard to his girl's upbringing.