That Maggie has steadfastly refused to marry Philip Wakem out of her unwillingness to cross her brother.
Turns out she is far more powerfully draw to cousin Lucy's boyfriend, Stephen Guest.
He beseeches her to marry him, pleading they both must abandon their previous engagements, given their passion for each other.
But, of course, that's not going to happen.
She is utterly certain it would be wrong.
This though neither couple is, as Stephen points out, formally engaged.
Maggie's moral beliefs are even narrower and more self-abnegating - and more oppressive of women - than the conventional.
And she is utterly determined to live up to them.
Contrast, say, Moll Flanders.
Or, for that matter, George Eliot.
The Great Temptation, chapter 11.
The Mill on the Floss,
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