She had been too plausible to be honest.

Without being able to trace the connection, he yet instinctively associated her present rebellion with her meeting with Mary Garland.

If she had not seen Mary, she would have let things stand.

It was monstrous to suppose that she could have sacrificed so brilliant a fortune to a mere movement of jealousy, to a refined instinct of feminine deviltry, to a desire to frighten poor Mary from her security by again appearing in the field.
Yet Rowland remembered his first impression of her; she was "dangerous," and she had measured in each direction the perturbing effect of her rupture.

She was smiling her sweetest smile at it! For half an hour Rowland simply detested her, and longed to denounce her to her face.