'At all events, there'll be a great majority of people who pretend to be decent.

I have asked Jessica Morgan to go with me.' 'What right had you to ask her, without first finding out whether you could go or not ?' It was spoken rather gravely than severely.

Mr.Lord never looked fixedly at his daughter, and even a glance at her face was unusual; but at this juncture he met her eyes for an instant.

The nervous motion with which he immediately turned aside had been marked by Nancy on previous occasions, and she had understood it as a sign of his lack of affection for her.
'I am twenty-three years old, father,' she replied, without aggressiveness.
'That would be something of an answer if you were a man,' observed the father, his eyes cast down.
'Because I am a woman, you despise me ?' Stephen was startled at this unfamiliar mode of address.

He moved uneasily.
'If I despised you, Nancy, I shouldn't care very much what you did.