Think only--a young widow, rich, and not a straw the worse!" "Sepia, I can't for the life of me tell whether you are a Job's comforter or the devil's advocate." "Not the latter, my child; for I want to see you emerge a saint from the miseries of matrimony.

But, whatever you do, Hesper, don't break your heart, for you will find it hard to mend.

I broke mine once, and have been mad ever since." "What is the use of saying that to me, when you know I have to marry the man ?" "I never said you were not to marry him; I said you were not to break your heart.

Marriage is nothing so long as you do not make a heart affair of it; that hurts; and, as you are not in love, there is no occasion for it at all." "Marriage is nothing, Sepia! Is it nothing to be tied to a man--to _any_ man--for all your life ?" "That's as you take it.

Nobody makes so much of it nowadays as they used.