"A clandestine engagement?
Trust me, Clifford, as I say, is a charming boy.

He is incapable of that.

Lizzie Acton, then, would not be jealous of another woman." "I certainly hope not," said the old man, with a vague sense of jealousy being an even lower vice than a love of liquor.
"The best thing for Clifford, then," Felix propounded, "is to become interested in some clever, charming woman." And he paused in his painting, and, with his elbows on his knees, looked with bright communicativeness at his uncle.

"You see, I believe greatly in the influence of women.

Living with women helps to make a man a gentleman.
It is very true Clifford has his sisters, who are so charming.