She had been kept in ignorance about the secret of her birth, and she suddenly discovers that instead of being a prospective peeress and heiress, she is only an illegitimate daughter, a nameless thing, a reproach in a world governed by moral conventions.

Her prospects, her future, and her life are shattered by her father's act.

The effect might well be overwhelming.

She broods over the wrong done to her, and decides to go to Flint House that night and see her father, though not, I think, with the premeditated idea of murder.

Her idea was to plead and remonstrate with him." "Why do you think that ?" asked Dawfield.
"She could not have foreseen that her absence from the hotel would pass unnoticed.