May I ask you what these questions tend?' 'Merely to the illustration of your character,' said she, endeavouring to shake off her gravity. 'I am trying to make it out.' 'And what is your success?' She shook her head. 'I do not get on at all. I hear such different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly.

I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it.

My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire.

She denied none of it aloud, and agreed to none of it in private.

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.

[Mrs. Allen was] never satisfied with the day unless she spent the chief of it by the side of Mrs. Thorpe, in what they called conversation, but in which there was scarcely ever any exchange of opinion, and not often any resemblance of subject, for Mrs. Thorpe talked chiefly of her children, and Mrs. Allen of her gowns.

An agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never alter plain ones.