The grounds of suspicion seemed to her very grave; so grave, that during her first day or two in Cumberland she had all but renounced the hopes long secretly fostered.

She knew herself well enough to understand how jealousy might wreck her life--even if it were only retrospective.

If she married Barfoot (forms or none--that question in no way touched this other), she would demand of him a flawless faith.

Her pride revolted against the thought of possessing only a share in his devotion; the moment that any faithlessness came to her knowledge she would leave him, perforce, inevitably--and what miseries were then before her! Was flawless faith possible to Everard Barfoot?
His cousin would ridicule the hope of any such thing--or so Rhoda believed.

A conventional woman would of course see the completest evidence of his untrustworthiness in his dislike of legal marriage; but Rhoda knew the idleness of this argument.