But this was a lesson which she had taught herself when she was very young, before she had come to understand the world and its hard necessities.

Nothing, she now told herself, could be worse than to hang like a mill-stone round the neck of a poor man.

It might be a very good thing to give herself away for love,--but it would not be a good thing to be the means of ruining the man she loved, even if that man were willing to be so ruined.
And then she thought that she could also love that other man a little,--could love him sufficiently for comfortable domestic purposes.

And it would undoubtedly be very pleasant to have all the troubles of her life settled for her.

If she were Mrs.Glascock, known to the world as the future Lady Peterborough, would it not be within her power to bring her sister and her sister's husband again together?
The tribute of the Monkhams' authority and influence to her sister's side of the question would be most salutary.