He laughed at what I said to her, and told me that he had long known her family.

Charlotte's uncle had paid his addresses to mother.
There might have been an engagement; whether there was or not, the influence of his family had broken the acquaintance.

This explained what Charlotte said to me in Miss Black's school about mother's being in love.
"You might have been angry with the girl, but you should not have felt hurt at the fact implied.

Are you so young still as to believe that only those who love marry?
or that those who marry have never loved, except each other ?" "I have thought of these things; but I am afraid that Love, like Theology, if examined, makes one skeptical." We jogged along in silence for a mile or two.
"Whether every man's children overpower him, I wonder?
I am positively afraid of you and Veronica." "What do you mean ?" "I am always unprepared for the demonstrations of character you and she make.

My traditional estimate, which comes from thoughtfulness, or the putting off of responsibility, or God knows what, I find will not answer.