“It is,” he went on, actually with tears, “an extraordinary circumstance attendant on my life, that every effort I make towards perfect respectability, is impeded by somebody else through no fault of mine! Not content with doing what I have put before you, you will drag my name into notoriety through dragging my sister’s⁠—which you are pretty sure to do, if my suspicions have any foundation at all⁠—and the worse you prove to be, the harder it will be for me to detach myself from being associated with you in people’s minds.”

When he had dried his eyes and heaved a sob over his injuries, he began moving towards the door.