he knew very well, that in his horror of the deed which had culminated the bad deeds and bad reputation of the old family house, in his resentful suspicions of his uncle, and in the aversion with which his conscience regarded the crumbling fabric that he was supposed to uphold, he had acted imperfectly. he knew very well, that in his love for lucie, his renunciation of his social place, though by no means new to his own mind, had been hurried and incomplete. he knew that he ought to have systematically worked it out and supervised it, and that he had meant to do it, and that it had never been done.