So-my beautiful dove was a good, wise thought, and what it carried in its basket you shall hear presently.

You see, mother, many will blame us, though here and there some one may pity; but this state of things must not continue.

I feel it more and more plainly with each passing day; and several years must yet elapse ere this scruple becomes wholly needless.

I am too young to welcome as a guest every one whom this or that man presents to me.

True, our reception-hall was my father's work-room and you, my own estimable, blameless mother, are the hostess here; but though superior to me in every respect, you are so modest that you shield yourself behind your daughter until the guests think of you only when you are absent.