Duty
One of the things she loved about him right away was his complete willingness to admit that his cruelty and selfishness are just that.
It's really sickening, all those people who try to obscure such things behind the title of duty and claim that they're good people, hand forced by bad circumstances.
She's been growing disillusioned as of late; still, she can't help but see a man who is honest and forthright about his own tendency for the sadistic in a far better light than the men who pull long faces before a crowd and lament that nothing could be done, all the while inwardly cackling, hands in their pockets, fondling themselves in delight of their cleverness.
If she has ever been deceived as to his tendencies and intentions, she thinks ruefully, it was willful self-deception, and he had no part of it.