In point of fact, she did not care one straw about him.
And yet she thought she loved him; was, indeed, quite confident that she did so; told her mother that she was sure Gustavus would wish this, she knew Gustavus would like that, and so on; but as for Gustavus himself, she did not care a chip for him.
She was in love with her match just as farmers are in love with wheat at eighty shillings a quarter; or shareholders--innocent gudgeons--with seven and half per cent.

interest on their paid-up capital.

Eighty shillings a quarter, and seven and half per cent.
interest, such were the returns which she had been taught to look for in exchange for her young heart; and, having obtained them, or being thus about to obtain them, why should not her young heart be satisfied?
Had she not sat herself down obediently at the feet of her lady Gamaliel, and should she not be rewarded?
Yes, indeed, she shall be rewarded.
And then the doctor went to the lady.

On their medical secrets we will not intrude; but there were other matters bearing on the course of our narrative, as to which Lady Arabella found it necessary to say a word or so to the doctor; and it is essential that we should know what was the tenor of those few words so spoken.
How the aspirations, and instincts, and feelings of a household become changed as the young birds begin to flutter with feathered wings, and have half-formed thoughts of leaving the parental nest! A few months back, Frank had reigned almost autocratic over the lesser subjects of the kingdom of Greshamsbury.

The servants, for instance, always obeyed him, and his sisters never dreamed of telling anything which he directed should not be told.