She was the daughter and flower of the Christian civilization of the nineteenth century, and the land of woman, that, on the whole, men of quite distinguished sense have been fond of choosing for wives, and will go on seeking to the end of the chapter.
Did she love John?
Well, she was quite pleased to be loved by him, and she liked the prospect of being his wife.

She was sure he would always let her have her own way, and that he had a plenty of worldly means to do it with.
Lillie, if not very clever in a literary or scientific point of view, was no fool.

She had, in fact, under all her softness of manner, a great deal of that real hard grit which shrewd, worldly people call common sense.

She saw through all the illusions of fancy and feeling, right to the tough material core of things.

However soft and tender and sentimental her habits of speech and action were in her professional capacity of a charming woman, still the fair Lillie, had she been a man, would have been respected in the business world, as one that had cut her eye-teeth, and knew on which side her bread was buttered.
A husband, she knew very well, was the man who undertook to be responsible for his wife's bills: he was the giver, bringer, and maintainer of all sorts of solid and appreciable comforts.
Lillie's bills had hitherto been sore places in the domestic history of her family.