There was an unpleasant strain of levity in that letter, extending even to the references to Captain Anthony himself.

Such a disposition was enough, his wife had pointed out to him, to alarm one for the future, had all the circumstances of that preposterous project been as satisfactory as in fact they were not.

Other parts of the letter seemed to have a challenging tone--as if daring them (the Fynes) to approve her conduct.
And at the same time implying that she did not care, that it was for their own sakes that she hoped they would "go against the world--the horrid world which had crushed poor papa." Fyne called upon me to admit that this was pretty cool--considering.

And there was another thing, too.

It seems that for the last six months (she had been assisting two ladies who kept a kindergarten school in Bayswater--a mere pittance), Flora had insisted on devoting all her spare time to the study of the trial.