All 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.

I dare say there's many a woman makes as sad a mistake as I have done, and only finds it out too late.

But I was right. I think that must be an hereditary quality, for my father says he is scarcely ever wrong.

Nevertheless, his moustachios are splendid.

How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I have seen today?

I have passed out of childhood into old age. I have had no youth - no womanhood; the hopes of womanhood have closed for me - for I shall never marry; and I anticipate cares and sorrows just as if I were an old woman, and with the same fearful spirit.

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