Yes, yes, she knew; I need not blaze out.
I had made myself a hero, as simple hearts do, but my idol was clay all the same.

Wealth and power would do for John Hollingford what his father's misconduct had undone.

It was utter silliness my abasing myself, saying that Rachel Leonard was more lovable than I.Her rich expectations were her superior charm.

Oh me! how people will talk, just to be thought knowing, just to be thought wise, just to dazzle, and to create an excitement for the hour.
I do think that Grace Tyrrell loved me after her own fashion, and that she thought I had been hardly used; but the sympathy she gave me was a weak sympathy, that loved to spend itself in words, that was curious to sift out the matter of my grief, that laid little wiles to prove the judgment she had given me true.

She had watched them (Rachel and John), she said, and John's manner was not the manner of a lover, though he affected it as much as he could.