Isabel's words, if they had been meant to shock him, failed of the mark and only made him smile with the sense that here was common ground.

"Who would wish less to curtail your liberty than I?
What can give me greater pleasure than to see you perfectly independent--doing whatever you like?
It's to make you independent that I want to marry you." "That's a beautiful sophism," said the girl with a smile more beautiful still.
"An unmarried woman--a girl of your age--isn't independent.

There are all sorts of things she can't do.

She's hampered at every step." "That's as she looks at the question," Isabel answered with much spirit.
"I'm not in my first youth--I can do what I choose--I belong quite to the independent class.

I've neither father nor mother; I'm poor and of a serious disposition; I'm not pretty.