It is my purpose to disclose the mystery at once, and to ask you to look for your interest,--should you choose to go on with my chronicle,--simply in the conduct of my persons, during this disclosure to others.

Little bits of things make me do it; — perhaps a word that I said and ought not to have said ten years ago; — the most ordinary little mistakes, even my own past thoughts to myself about the merest trifles. They are always making me shiver.

The best education is to be had at a price, as well as the best broadcloth.

Men are cowards before women until they become tyrants.

Romance is very pretty in novels, but the romance of a life is always a melancholy matter. They are most happy who have no story to tell.

I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.

A fellow oughtn't to let his family property go to pieces.