The diction Victor uses suggests that it is less having to inform mutual friends of
Clerval's death than his sense of culpability for it, with the attendant need to exonerate
himself, that drives him to avoid his English acquaintance, and perhaps some in France
as well. However we construe his hesitancy, Victor's total rerouting of his itinerary
here is of a piece with his progressive withdrawal from human society and normative
social obligations.