to have abandoned all idea of vengeance. But
from time to time there arose in her heart a feeling
that such softness was unworthy of her. Who had
ever been soft to her? Who had spared her?
Had she not long since found out that she must fight
with her very nails and teeth for every inch of ground,
if she did not mean to be trodden into the dust?
Had she not held her own among rough people after
a very rough fashion, and should she now simply retire
that she might weep in a corner like a love-sick schoolgirl?
And she had been so stoutly determined that she would
at any rate avenge her own wrongs, if she could not
turn those wrongs into triumph! There were moments
in which she thought that she could still seize the
man...