The daughter herself had been too honest for it.

"As for caring about him, mamma," she had once said, speaking of a suitor, "of course I don't.

He is nasty, and odious in every way.

But I have got to do the best I can, and what is the use of talking about such trash as that ?" Then there had been no more trash between them.
It was not John Morton whom Arabella Trefoil had called nasty and odious.

She had had many lovers, and had been engaged to not a few, and perhaps she liked John Morton as well as any of them,--except one.