One thing she did know, and that swallowed up all the rest--that her husband's affairs were so involved as to threaten absolute poverty; and what woman of the world would not count damnation better than that ?--while Mr.Redmain was rolling in money.

Had she known everything bad of her daughter's suitor, short of legal crime, for her this would have covered it all.
In Hesper's useless explosion the mother did not fail to recognize the presence of Sepia, without whose knowledge of the bad side of the world, Hesper, she believed, could not have been awake to so much.

But she was afraid of Sepia.

Besides, the thing was so far done; and she did not think she would work to thwart the marriage.

On that point she would speak to her.
But it was a doubtful service that Sepia had rendered her cousin--to rouse her indignation and not her strength; to wake horror without hinting at remedy; to give knowledge of impending doom, without poorest suggestion of hope, or vaguest shadow of possible escape.