All the most individual and humane of his friends were bachelors and spinsters; indeed he was surprised to find that the women he most admired and knew best were unmarried women.

Marriage seemed to be worse for them than it was for men.

Leaving these general pictures he considered the people whom he had been observing lately at the hotel.

He had often revolved these questions in his mind, as he watched Susan and Arthur, or Mr.
and Mrs.Thornbury, or Mr.and Mrs.Elliot.He had observed how the shy happiness and surprise of the engaged couple had gradually been replaced by a comfortable, tolerant state of mind, as if they had already done with the adventure of intimacy and were taking up their parts.

Susan used to pursue Arthur about with a sweater, because he had one day let slip that a brother of his had died of pneumonia.