She had struggled, and the refusals they had put down to pride they must now attribute to passion.
She did not wish to be separated from him whom she loved.

Hence the struggle that had ended in her abandoning her hand to Cayrol, perhaps in a moment of despair and discouragement.

But why had he whom she loved not married her?
What obstacle had arisen between him and the young girl?
Jeanne, so beautiful, and dowered by Madame Desvarennes, who then could have hesitated to ask her hand?
Perhaps he whom Jeanne loved was unworthy of her?
No! She would not have chosen him.

Perhaps he was not free to marry?
Yes, it must be that.
Some married man, perhaps! A scoundrel who did not mind breaking a young girl's heart! Where had she met him?
In society at her house in the Rue Saint-Dominique, perhaps! Who could tell?
He very likely still continued to come there.

At the thought Madame Desvarennes grew angry.