Oh! that look of love!" continued he, between his teeth, as he bolted himself into his own private room. "And that cursed lie; which showed some terrible shame in the background, to be kept from the light in which I thought she lived perpetually! Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Mother, how you have tortured me! Oh! Margaret, could you not have loved me? I am but uncouth and hard, but I would never have led you into any falsehood for me.
Elizabeth GaskellThe French girls would tell you, to believe that you were pretty would make you so.
Elizabeth GaskellAll the earth, though it were full of kind hearts, is but a desolation and desert place to a mother when her only child is absent.
Elizabeth GaskellShe freshens me up above a bit. Who'd ha thought that face - as bright and as strong as the angel I dream of - could have known the sorrow she speaks on? I wonder how she'll sin. All on us must sing.
Elizabeth GaskellI dare say there's many a woman makes as sad a mistake as I have done, and only finds it out too late.
Elizabeth GaskellHe could not forget the touch of her arms around his neck, impatiently felt as it had been at the time; but now the recollection of her clinging defence of him, seemed to thrill him through and through,โto melt away every resolution, all power of self-control, as if it were wax before a fire.
Elizabeth Gaskell