In what am I inferior as a man to Cecily as a woman?
Would you have me snivel, and talk about my impurity and her angelic qualities?
You know that you would despise me if I did--or any other man who used the same empty old phrases." "I grant you that," replied Mallard, deliberately.

"I believe I am no more superstitious with regard to these questions than you are, and I want to hear no cant.

Let us take it on more open ground.

Were Cecily Doran my daughter, I would resist her marrying you to the utmost of my power--not simply because you have lived laxly, but because of my conviction that the part of your life is to be a pattern of the whole.
I have no faith in you--no faith in your sense of honour, in your stability, not even in your mercy.

Your wife will be, sooner or later, one of the unhappiest of women.