She could never follow the order of the twelve months of the year, nor master a single arithmetical figure, nor count a sum of money, nor reckon the price of a thing.

A month's instruction was not enough to give knowledge of the hours of the day on the dial-plate.

The words she used were often the direct opposites of the words that she meant to use.[123] The marriage choice of others is the inscrutable puzzle of those who have no eye for the fact that such choice is the great match of cajolery between purpose and invisible hazard; the blessedness of many lives is the stake, as intention happens to cheat accident or to be cheated by it.

When the match is once over, deep criticism of a game of pure chance is time wasted.

The crude talk in which the unwise deliver their judgments upon the conditions of success in the relations between men and women, has flowed with unprofitable copiousness as to this not very inviting case.