Tell me you believe that." This was said with ineffable candor.

Rowland heard himself answering, "I believe it!" "And yet, in a sense, your supposition was true," Christina continued.
"I conceived, as I told you, a great admiration for Miss Garland, and I frankly confess I was jealous of her.

What I envied her was simply her character! I said to myself, 'She, in my place, would n't marry Casamassima.' I could not help saying it, and I said it so often that I found a kind of inspiration in it.

I hated the idea of being worse than she--of doing something that she would n't do.

I might be bad by nature, but I need n't be by volition.