... the tradesmen involved (ch. 48) would have wanted to hide the ugly truth as long as they thought their own daughters were the only ones deceived, and even after.

Second, the gossips would have been reluctant to voice mere suspicion based on his and the girls' behavior, until it was publicly known that at least one girl (especially one of the leading girls of the neighborhood) had succumbed. Once the affair was out, the gossip, both true and false, would have snowballed.