Madam, I dare you to smile until you suffer this test: Let the Marechal Niel roses that Percy brought you on the night you gave him your heart be served as a salad with 

French dressing before your eyes at a Schulenberg ~table d'hote~. Had Juliet so seen her love tokens dishonoured the sooner would she have sought the lethean herbs of the good apothecary

这是欧亨利的小说《Springtime a la carte》节选。

句中出现了the sooner, 请教老师，我在词典上看到很多例句，没有发现the sooner是单独使用的，一般会出现the better等之类的呼应，为什么这里可以单独使用the sooner,

是否暗含着省略了the better等之类的呢？