Perhaps the reason was that she felt herself more hopelessly an outcast from the world of honourable women, and therefore longed in her desolation for the support of a man's love.

Did he not love her?
It was _her_ fault if she expected him to act with a boldness that did not lie in his nature.

Perhaps his discretion, which she had so bitterly condemned as weakness, meant a wise regard for her interests as well as his own.

The public scandal of divorce was a hideous thing.

If it damaged his prospects and sundered him from his relatives, how could she hope that his love of her, the cause of it all, would long endure?
The need of love overcame her.