They would give up ideas of gentle living, of soft raiment, and delicate feeding.

Others,--those that work with their hands, even the bettermost of such workers--could live in decency and health upon even such provision as he could earn as a clergyman.

In such manner would they live, so poorly and so decently, working out their work, not with their hands but with their hearts.
And so they had established themselves, beginning the world with one bare-footed little girl of fourteen to aid them in their small household matters; and for a while they had both kept heart, loving each other dearly, and prospering somewhat in their work.

But a man who has once walked the world as a gentleman knows not what it is to change his position, and place himself lower down in the social rank.
Much less can he know what it is so to put down the woman whom he loves.

There are a thousand things, mean and trifling in themselves, which a man despises when he thinks of them in his philosophy, but to dispense with which puts his philosophy to so stern a proof.