But all this might be the result of their old friendship--it might have nothing to do with love.
Could it be possible that she still remembered the childish nonsense that had passed between them--that she considered either herself or him bound by a foolish tie that neither of them had contracted?
Could it be possible that she regarded herself as engaged to him?
The bare idea of it seemed absurd to him; he could not believe it.

Yet many little things that he could not explain to himself made him feel uncomfortable and anxious.

Could it be that she, the most beautiful and certainly the most popular woman in London, cared so much for him as to hold him by so slender a tie as their past childish nonsense?
He reproached himself for the thought, yet, do what he would, he could not drive it away.

The suspicion haunted him; it made him miserable.

If it was really so, what was he to do?
He was a gentleman, not a coxcomb.