What does compunction mean? (From Dickens's Bleak House)
Compunction is anxiety arising from awareness of guilt.
"Has he so little pity or compunction?"
"He has none, and no anger. He is indifferent to everything but his calling. His calling is the acquisition of secrets and the holding possession of such power as they give him, with no sharer or opponent in it."
From Charles Dickens's Bleak House.