Instead of putting him across her knee, and working into him the eighth commandment, she had said nothing; but that it seemed to be a fairly useful sort of rabbit, and had sent him out into the garden to pick onions.

If she had done her duty by him then, he would not have been now in his present most unsatisfactory position, and she would still have had her nose.

The fathers and mothers in the audience applauded, but the children, scenting addition to precedent, looked glum.
Maybe it is something of this kind the heroine is hinting at.

Perhaps the Problem has nothing to do with the heroine herself, but with the heroine's parents: what is the best way of bringing up a daughter who shows the slightest sign of developing a tendency towards a Past?
Can it be done by kindness?
And, if not, how much?
Occasionally the parents attempt to solve the Problem, so far as they are concerned, by dying young--shortly after the heroine's birth.

No doubt they argue to themselves this is their only chance of avoiding future blame.