But those very sympathies enabled her to judge him with singular accuracy, aided as she was by an outline knowledge of his past.

Her genuine affection for Cecily made her, now that the peril had declared itself, his strenuous adversary.

For Cecily to marry Reuben Elgar would be a catastrophe, nothing less.

She was profoundly convinced of this, and the best elements of her nature came out in the resistance she was determined to make.
A less worthy ground of vexation against Elgar might probably be attributed to her.

Skilful in judging men, she had not the same insight where her own sex was concerned, and in the case of Cecily she was misled, or rather misled herself, with curious persistence.