The more he thought about the matter, the more he felt troubled.

In the evening, he met his sister again, and the sight of her made him more deeply conscious of the responsibility resting upon him.

His oft repeated mental excuse--"It's none of my business," or, "I can't meddle in other men's affairs," did not satisfy certain convictions of right and duty that presented themselves with, to him, a strange distinctness.

The thought of his own sister was instantly associated with the scheme of some false-hearted wretch, involving her happiness in the way that the happiness of Caroline Everett was to be involved; and he felt that the man who knew that another was plotting against her, and did not apprize him of the fact, was little less than a villain at heart.
On the next day Williams learned that there was a writ out against the person of Charles Lawson on a charge of swindling, he having obtained a sum of money from a broker under circumstances construed by the laws into crime.

This fact determined him to go at once to Mr.Everett, who, as it might be supposed, was deeply agitated at the painful intelligence he received.