If that were to happen, I don't know what I should do! I should be the most miserable of women.

It would be too cruel, after all I 've suffered to make her what she is, to see the labor of years blighted by a caprice.

For I can assure you, sir," Mrs.Light went on, "that if my daughter is the greatest beauty in the world, some of the credit is mine." Rowland promptly remarked that this was obvious.

He saw that the lady's irritated nerves demanded comfort from flattering reminiscence, and he assumed designedly the attitude of a zealous auditor.

She began to retail her efforts, her hopes, her dreams, her presentiments, her disappointments, in the cause of her daughter's matrimonial fortunes.