“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a married man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of an heir.”

“Annabel looked down. Her hands were shaking. She couldn't do this. Not yet. She couldn't face the man she'd kissed who happened to be the heir to the man she didn't want to kiss but whos she probably was going to marry. Oh yes, and she could not forget that if she did marry the man she didn't want to kiss, she was likely to provide him with a new heir, thus cutting off the man she did want to kiss.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“I am asking you to marry me because I love you,” he said, “because I cannot imagine living my life without you. I want to see your face in the morning, and then at night, and a hundred times in between. I want to grow old with you, I want to laugh with you, and I want to sigh to my friends about how managing you are, all the while secretly knowing I am the luckiest man in town.”“What?” she demanded.He shrugged. “A man’s got to keep up appearances. I’ll be universally detested if everyone realizes how perfect you are.”

“All of this presupposes that I have set my sights on a single male.' Susan's eyes bugged out. 'You certainly cannot set your signs on a married man!' 'I meant a particular man,' Elizabeth retorted, swatting her sister on the shoulder.”

“I want you. I want you now, in every way a man can want a woman.”

“I am beggining to realise," Alex murmured, "why people always hope for sons. It has nothing to do with producing an heir.""That was unkind," Octavia said, not sounding the least bit insulted."Females are a prodigious amount of work.”