Even if compelled by circumstances to accept Arnault, she proposed to herself the triumph of rejecting Graydon, and thought she could do this so skilfully as to give the idea that he had made a deep impression on her heart, and so eventually win him again as one of her devoted followers in the future.

This product of fashionable society had not the slightest intention of giving up her career as a belle for the sake of Mr.
Arnault or any one else.

She had more liking and less fear for Graydon than for Arnault.

The latter was an open, resolute suitor, but she knew that he was controlled more by ambition than by affection--that he would yield everything and submit to anything up to a certain point.

The moment she jeopardized his prestige before the world, or interfered with his scheme of success, she would meet rock-like obduracy, both before and after marriage.