She, and she alone, prevented the whole family from falling into utter disrepute and beggary.

It was by her advice that they now found themselves very unpleasantly situated in Barchester.
So far, the character of Charlotte Stanhope is not unprepossessing.
But it remains to be said that the influence which she had in her family, though it had been used to a certain extent for their worldly well-being, had not been used to their real benefit, as it might have been.

She had aided her father in his indifference to his professional duties, counselling him that his livings were as much his individual property as the estates of his elder brother were the property of that worthy peer.

She had for years past stifled every little rising wish for a return to England which the doctor had from time to time expressed.

She had encouraged her mother in her idleness, in order that she herself might be mistress and manager of the Stanhope household.