Insincerity in a man's own heart must make all his enjoyments, all that concerns him, unreal; so that his whole life must seem like a merely dramatic representation.

We are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier; but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point.

But she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price-purchased with all she had-her mother's only treasure!

There is an alchemy of quiet malice by which women can concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles.

New England is quite as large a lump of earth as my heart can really take in.

She poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit.

It was one of those moments—which sometimes occur only at the interval of years—when a man's moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind's eye. Not improbably, he had never before viewed himself as he did now.