Yet she knew Hugh a thousand times better than any of the others.

Why was this?
Many women before Rachel have sought diligently to find, and have shut their eyes diligently, lest they should discover what it is that is dark to them in the character of the man they love.
Perhaps Rachel half knew all the time the subtle inequality in Hugh's character.

Perhaps she loved him all the better for it.

Perhaps she knew that if he had been without a certain undefinable weakness he would not have been drawn towards her strength.

She was stronger than he, and perhaps she loved him more than she could have loved an equal.
"_Les esprits faibles ne sont jamais sinceres_." She had come across that sentence one day in a book she was reading, and had turned suddenly blind and cold with anger.