But he felt too strongly that in thus speaking he would sadden her by the destruction of her great hope.  On the other hand, to offer to make her his legal wife would be to do her a yet greater injustice, even had he been willing to so sacrifice himself.  The necessity for legal marriage would be a confession of her inferiority, and the sense of being thus bound would, he well knew, be the surest means of weakening his affection.  This affection he could not trust.  How far was it mere passion of the senses, which gratification would speedily kill?

In the case of his feeling towards Maud Enderby there was no such doubt.  Never was his blood so calm as in her presence.  She was to him a spirit, and in the spirit he loved her.  With Maud he might look forward to union at some distant day, a union outwardly of the conventional kind.  It would be so, not on account of any inferiority to his ideal in Maud, for he felt that there was no height of his own thought whither she would not in time follow him; but simply because no point of principle would demand a refusal of the yoke of respectability, with its attendant social advantages.  And the thought of thus binding himself to Maud had nothing repulsive, for the links between them were not of the kind which easily yield, and loyalty to a higher and nobler nature may well be deemed a duty.

So far logical arguing.  But the fact remained that he had not the least intention of breaking off his intercourse with Ida, despite the certainty that passion would grow upon him with each of their meetings, rendering their mutual relations more and more dangerous.  Of only one thing could he be sure:  marriage was not to be thought of.  It remained, then, that he was in danger of being led into conduct which would be the source of grievous unrest to himself, and for Ida would lay the foundation of much suffering.  Waymark was honest enough in his self-communing to admit that he could not trust himself.  Gross deception he was incapable of, but he would not answer for it that, the temptation pressing him too hard, he might not be guilty of allowing Ida to think his love of more worth than it really was.  She knew his contempt of conventional ties, and her faith in him would keep her from pressing him to any step he disliked; she would trust him without that.  And such trust would be unmerited.

It was significant that he did not take into account loyalty to Maud as a help in resisting this temptation.  He was too sure of himself as regarded that purer love; let what might happen, his loyalty to Maud would be unshaken.  It was independent of passion, and passion could not shake it.