The great dream she had nourished had been destroyed.

And, moreover, he had proclaimed himself a fool.
Yes, despite him and all he could do, she was going to go the brilliant, exciting way she had planned! In fairness to Maggie it must be remembered that despite her assumed maturity and self-confident wisdom, she really was only eighteen, and perhaps did not yet fully know herself, and had all the world yet to learn.

And it must be remembered that she believed herself entirely in the right.

This was a world where strength and cunning were the qualities that counted, and every one was trying to outwit his neighbor; and all who acted otherwise were either weak-witted fools or else pretenders who saw in their hypocrisy the keenest game of all.

Living under the influence of Old Jimmie, and later of Barney, and of the environment in which she had been bred, these beliefs had come to be her religion.