"Goodness lasts, my dear, when beauty fades." "Oh, nonsense! Now, John, don't talk humbug.

I'd like to see _you_ following goodness when beauty is gone.

I've known lots of plain old maids that were perfect saints and angels; and yet men crowded and jostled by them to get the pretty sinners.

I dare say now," she added, with a bewitching look over her shoulder at him, "you'd rather have me than Miss Almira Carraway,--hadn't you, now ?" And Lillie put her white arm round his neck, and her downy cheek to his, and said archly, "Come, now, confess." Then John told her that she was a bad, naughty girl; and she laughed; and, on the whole, the pair were more hilarious and loving than usual.
But yet, when John was away at his office, he thought of it again, and found there was still a sore spot in his heart.
She had cheated him once; would she cheat him again?
And she could cheat so prettily, so serenely, and with such a candid face, it was a dangerous talent.
No: she wasn't like his mother, he thought with a sigh.

The "je ne sais quoi de saint et de sacre," which had so captivated his imagination, did not cover the saintly and sacred nature; it was a mere outward purity of complexion and outline.