He meant that she should go hand in hand with him through the brimstone lake, and the more repulsive it seemed to her, the more overwhelming would his superiority become.

He meant to destroy those doubts of his character which Carrington was so carefully fostering, to rouse her sympathy, to stimulate her feminine sense of self-sacrifice.
When he asked this question she looked up at him with an expression of indignant pride, as she spoke: "I say again, Mr.Ratcliffe, what I said once before.

Do whatever is most for the public good." "And what is most for the public good ?" Madeleine half opened her mouth to reply, then hesitated, and stared silently into the fire before her.

What was indeed most for the public good?
Where did the public good enter at all into this maze of personal intrigue, this wilderness of stunted natures where no straight road was to be found, but only the tortuous and aimless tracks of beasts and things that crawl?
Where was she to look for a principle to guide, an ideal to set up and to point at?
Ratcliffe resumed his appeal, and his manner was more serious than ever.
"I am hard pressed, Mrs.Lee.My enemies encompass me about.

They mean to ruin me.