that the manner in which she treated the dreadful crime committed , giving it every reproach but the right ; considering its ill consequences only as they were to be braved by a defiance of decency ; and last of all , recommending to us a compliance , an acquiescence in the continuance of the sin , on the chance of a marriage which , thinking as i now thought of her brother , should rather be prevented than sought ; all this together most grievously convinced me that i had never understood her before , and that it had been the creature of my own imagination , not miss crawford , that i had been dwelling on for many months past .