"What are my illusions ?" she asked.

"I try so hard not to have any." "Well," said Henrietta, "you think you can lead a romantic life, that you can live by pleasing yourself and pleasing others.

You'll find you're mistaken.

Whatever life you lead you must put your soul in it--to make any sort of success of it; and from the moment you do that it ceases to be romance, I assure you: it becomes grim reality! And you can't always please yourself; you must sometimes please other people.
That, I admit, you're very ready to do; but there's another thing that's still more important--you must often displease others.

You must always be ready for that--you must never shrink from it.