She had been neglected, ignored, forsaken, treated with a contempt which no girl of a fine temper could endure.

There were girls, indeed, whose fineness, like that of Burd Helen in the ballad, lay in clinging to the man of their love through thick and thin, and in bowing their head to all hard usage.

This attitude had often an exquisite beauty of its own, but Rowland deemed that he had solid reason to believe it never could be Mary Garland's.
She was not a passive creature; she was not soft and meek and grateful for chance bounties.

With all her reserve of manner she was proud and eager; she asked much and she wanted what she asked; she believed in fine things and she never could long persuade herself that fine things missed were as beautiful as fine things achieved.

Once Rowland passed an angry day.