[The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy]@TWC D-Link bookThe Woodlanders CHAPTER XII 4/14
You sha'n't be treated like that for long, or at least your children sha'n't.
You shall have somebody to walk with you who looks more of a dandy than I--please God you shall!" "But, my dear father," she said, much distressed, "I don't mind at all. I don't wish for more honor than I already have!" "A perplexing and ticklish possession is a daughter," according to Menander or some old Greek poet, and to nobody was one ever more so than to Melbury, by reason of her very dearness to him.
As for Grace, she began to feel troubled; she did not perhaps wish there and then to unambitiously devote her life to Giles Winterborne, but she was conscious of more and more uneasiness at the possibility of being the social hope of the family. "You would like to have more honor, if it pleases me ?" asked her father, in continuation of the subject. Despite her feeling she assented to this.
His reasoning had not been without its weight upon her. "Grace," he said, just before they had reached the house, "if it costs me my life you shall marry well! To-day has shown me that whatever a young woman's niceness, she stands for nothing alone.
You shall marry well." He breathed heavily, and his breathing was caught up by the breeze, which seemed to sigh a soft remonstrance. She looked calmly at him.
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