To act against the wishes of her nearest friends was hard enough, but to appear harsh and unfeeling to the one being whose happiness she had at heart, was intolerable.

Yet no sensible woman, after saying that she meant to marry a man like Mr.
Ratcliffe, could throw him over merely because another woman chose to behave like a spoiled child.
Sybil was more childish than Madeleine herself had supposed.

She could not even see where her own interest lay.

She knew no more about Mr.
Ratcliffe and the West than if he were the giant of a fairy-story, and lived at the top of a bean-stalk.

She must be treated as a child; with gentleness, affection, forbearance, but with firmness and decision.