Moreover, there was about Monck at that moment a force that restrained him, compelled instinctive respect.

Though he hated the man for his mastery, he could not despise him.

For he knew that what he had done had been done through a rigid sense of honour and that chivalry which goes hand in hand with honour--the chivalry with which no woman would have credited him.
That Monck had nought but the most disinterested regard for any woman, he firmly believed, and probably that conviction gave added strength to his position.

That he should fight thus for a mere principle, though incomprehensible in Dacre's opinion, was a circumstance that carried infinitely more weight than more personal championship.

Monck was the one man of his acquaintance who had never displayed the smallest desire to compete for any woman's favour, who had never indeed shown himself to be drawn by any feminine attractions, and his sudden assumption of authority was therefore unassailable.