It wished, therefore, to hold fast to justice--not to pay itself by petty revenges.

To associate Madame Merle with its disappointment would be a petty revenge--especially as the pleasure to be derived from that would be perfectly insincere.

It might feed her sense of bitterness, but it would not loosen her bonds.

It was impossible to pretend that she had not acted with her eyes open; if ever a girl was a free agent she had been.

A girl in love was doubtless not a free agent; but the sole source of her mistake had been within herself.
There had been no plot, no snare; she had looked and considered and chosen.