A strong word, implying a much deeper struggle within Mrs Gould than the words of the conversation suggest. In fact, in her questioning of Holroyd's motives, Emily is questioning the entire use of material progress to implement her altruism. Implicit in this questioning is her use for Charles, as the paragraph's first sentence makes almost explicit. And what causes her to "relent" is very significant: it is Charles' upper-class demeanor. Almost hidden, what happens in this paragraph is that Emily accepts the forces of material progress, despite her reservations, because they confer something that is to her more important: an upper-class status. Conrad thus makes a very subtle point, that a standing of superiority is more fundamentally necessary to altruism than are the means of redress.