I have a notion that she had always disliked intensely all her charges including the two ducal (if they were ducal) little girls with whom she had dazzled de Barral.

What an odious, ungratified existence it must have been for a woman as avid of all the sensuous emotions which life can give as most of her betters.
She had seen her youth vanish, her freshness disappear, her hopes die, and now she felt her flaming middle-age slipping away from her.

No wonder that with her admirably dressed, abundant hair, thickly sprinkled with white threads and adding to her elegant aspect the piquant distinction of a powdered coiffure--no wonder, I say, that she clung desperately to her last infatuation for that graceless young scamp, even to the extent of hatching for him that amazing plot.

He was not so far gone in degradation as to make him utterly hopeless for such an attempt.
She hoped to keep him straight with that enormous bribe.

She was clearly a woman uncommon enough to live without illusions--which, of course, does not mean that she was reasonable.