How much of her seduction of Pottsy before he proposed to her was a feeling of being genuinely caught up in the moment, how much of it was just a ruse so that she wouldn't have to go out on the streets and get arrested?
I think that's the central question, don't you?
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I think it was pretty obvious that her whole attitude was based on her being protected from the law. It wasn't until they got to New Jersey when she realized that she didn't want Joe Lilac and that she had genuine feelings for Potts. Even after he proposed, her telephone conversation with Lilac indicated that she wasn't really interested in Potts. Remember her saying something like she was having trouble with one of them, meaning Potts, who was was going overboard about her or something to that effect? Even at that point she was still taking them for a ride.
shareDuring the telephone conversation she was conflicted, but not yet head over heels in love with Potts. See the way she looks at Potts when he proposes to her right before - there's a look in her eye that's the beginning of something (Stanwyck is brilliant at those subtle vulnerable expressions, even in a character like Sugarpuss). When she says that Potts is giving her trouble, she means (inwardly) that she's starting to be drawn to this guy. He's an unforeseen complication.
At the very least she cared about him enough at that point to not want to hurt him (she objected to the scheme of using them for transportation, though her gangster boyfriend didn't let her get around that - and then the housekeeper found the paper...)
"....a bad case of Andy Hardy."
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