The speaker is defending a woman, someone they call "my dear," against a question that never should have been asked. Someone has wondered why she is afraid to love, and the speaker answers with a quiet kind of anger: she knows pain, and she knows it "so well." The point is simple. Fear of love isn't a flaw or a mystery. It makes sense if you've been hurt enough.
The most striking word is "audacity." It shows the speaker's feeling: this isn't just sadness, it's indignation. The person asking seems to have either caused the pain or ignored it, and the speaker finds that hard to forgive. The short, broken lines make the poem feel like a calm but pointed reply, almost a rebuke.
The mood is protective and a little bitter, with tenderness underneath. We learn nothing about what hurt her, and that silence works well. It suggests the pain is too big, or too obvious, to need explaining.