By nature she was indulgent, of mild disposition, of sunny intelligence; so endowed, circumstances had bidden her regard it as the end of her being to respect conventions, to check her native impulse if ever it went counter to the opinion of Society, to use her intellect for the sole purpose of discovering how far it was permitted to be used.

And she was a happy woman, had always been a happy woman.

She had known a little trouble in relation to her favourite sister's marriage with Mr.Newthorpe, for she foresaw that it could not turn out very well, and she had been obliged to censure her sister for excessive devotion to the pleasures of Society; it grieved her, on the other hand, to think of her poor niece being brought up in a way so utterly opposed to all the traditions.

But these were only little ripples on the smooth flowing surface.

You knew that she would never be smitten down with a great sorrow.