I wish him well, but he shan't put my little cousin and her expectations into his empty pocket--_not_ a bit of it.

And _there's_ another reason, Austin, why you should marry--you have no eye for these things, whereas a clever _woman_ would see at a glance and prevent mischief.' 'So she would,' acquiesced my father, in his gloomy, amused way.

'Maud, you must try to be a clever woman.' 'So she will in her time, but that is not come yet; and I tell you, Austin Ruthyn, if you won't look about and marry somebody, somebody may possibly marry you.' 'You were always an oracle, Monica; but _here_ I am lost in total perplexity,' said my father.
'Yes; sharks sailing round you, with keen eyes and large throats; and you have come to the age precisely when men _are_ swallowed up alive like Jonah.' 'Thank you for the parallel, but you know that was not a happy union, even for the fish, and there was a separation in a few days; not that I mean to trust to that; but there's no one to throw me into the jaws of the monster, and I've no notion of jumping there; and the fact is, Monica, there's no monster at all.' 'I'm not so sure.' 'But I'm quite sure,' said my father, a little drily.

'You forget how old I am, and how long I've lived alone--I and little Maud;' and he smiled and smoothed my hair, and, I thought, sighed.
'No one is ever too old to do a foolish thing,' began Lady Knollys.
'Nor to say a foolish thing, Monica.

This has gone on too long.