“I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man.”

“I do assure you, Sir, that I have no pretension whatever of that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart.”

“I thank you again and again for the hounour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as an rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.”

“No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.”

“No: the years which had destroyed her youth and bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect lessening his personal advantages.”

“If we have not hearts, we have eyes; and they give us torment enough.”

“I do not dislike him. I consider him, on the contrary, as a very respectable man, who has everybody's good word and nobody's notice…”