He had not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his bones, and leanness goes a great way towards gentility.

She never called her son by any name but John; 'love' and 'dear', and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny.

Margaret was not a ready lover, but where she loved she loved passionately, and with no small degree of jealousy.

Mr Thornton would rather have heard that she was suffering the natural sorrow. In the first place, there was selfishness enough in him to have taken pleasure in the idea that his great love might come in to comfort and console her; much the same kind of strange passionate pleasure which comes stinging through a mother's heart, when her drooping infant nestles close to her, and is dependent upon her for everything.

I would not trust a mouse to a woman if a man's judgment could be had.

Mrs Forrester ... sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up, though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.

Th' longest lane will have a turning.