They begged her, however, to continue, with such earnestness in their voices, as if they only craved advice, that she was led to add: "Marriage! well, it's not easy." "That's what we want to know," they answered, and she guessed that now they were looking at each other.
"It depends on both of you," she stated.

Her face was turned towards Terence, and although he could hardly see her, he believed that her words really covered a genuine desire to know more about him.

He raised himself from his semi-recumbent position and proceeded to tell her what she wanted to know.

He spoke as lightly as he could in order to take away her depression.
"I'm twenty-seven, and I've about seven hundred a year," he began.

"My temper is good on the whole, and health excellent, though Hirst detects a gouty tendency.