He felt like that about people himself, and he respected her for the way she fought to secure a footing among the hated upper classes, and then trampled upon their necks.

There were no shades of her character which would have disgusted or dismayed him; even the knowledge that her erudition was merely parrot-talk, would only have appealed to his admiration as a further proof of her sagacity.
They went on to Venice the day after he arrived, with Arabella to make a chaperoning third, and for the first two days afterwards Cecilia kept him at arm's length, but not waiting for his dinner! Some instinct told her that in his home circle he would probably have been accustomed to worthy, punctual women, and, while she enjoyed tantalizing him, she knew that he had a nasty temper and could not be provoked too far.

No bonds of honor or chivalry would control his actions as they would those of John Derringham.

She was dealing with as lawless a being as herself, and it was very refreshing.

Mr.Hanbury-Green knew her one weak point--she was intensely sensitive of the world's opinion, as are all people who inwardly know they are shams.