She was the only woman he had known, even at Woollett, as to whom his conviction was positive that to lie was beyond her art.

Sarah Pocock, for instance, her own daughter, though with social ideals, as they said, in some respects different--Sarah who WAS, in her way, aesthetic, had never refused to human commerce that mitigation of rigour; there were occasions when he had distinctly seen her apply it.

Since, accordingly, at all events, he had had it from Mrs.Newsome that she had, at whatever cost to her more strenuous view, conformed, in the matter of preparing Chad, wholly to his restrictions, he now looked up at the fine continuous balcony with a safe sense that if the case had been bungled the mistake was at least his property.

Was there perhaps just a suspicion of that in his present pause on the edge of the Boulevard and well in the pleasant light?
Many things came over him here, and one of them was that he should doubtless presently know whether he had been shallow or sharp.

Another was that the balcony in question didn't somehow show as a convenience easy to surrender.