“To marry is to narrow one's possibilities horribly.”

“Dullness it is that perverts and corrups the spirit but it is always possible to look past the dullness, and see the bright, shining heart of things”

“One hesitates to open a new chapter when the old one is not resolved.”

“One wouldn't wish to tempt fate”

“It is presumptuous to draw conclusions about a person from what one has heard”

“No young woman of good breeding should show exclusive partiality to one partner all night.”

“Anne’s is a world very like this one, and you can move about in it with familiarity - but not freedom: it is a place of rigorous consequence, where the weak have to give way to the strong, where her governess heroine Agnes must walk as best she can in the cold shade of money and masculinity.”