What would a man of sound common sense, like Mr.Purcey, think of it?
Why not, as Stephen had suggested, drop it?
Here, however, Hilary approached the marshy ground of feeling.
To give up befriending a helpless girl the moment he found himself personally menaced was exceedingly distasteful.

But would she be friendless?
Were there not, in Stephen's words, a hundred things he did not know about her?
Had she not other resources?
Had she not a story?
But here, too, he was hampered by his delicacy: one did not pry into the private lives of others! The matter, too, was hopelessly complicated by the domestic troubles of the Hughs family.

No conscientious man--and whatever Hilary lacked, no one ever accused him of a lack of conscience--could put aside that aspect of the case.
Wandering among these reflections were his thoughts about Bianca.

She was his wife.

However he might feel towards her now, whatever their relations, he must not put her in a false position.