You know, people in our world have to do as they must; they can't pick and choose like you happy creatures.

I dare say, now, you are engaged to a young man you love with all your heart, one you would rather marry than any other in the whole universe." "Oh, dear, no!" returned Mary, with a smile most plainly fancy-free.

"I am not engaged, nor in the least likely to be." "And not in love either ?" said Hesper--with such coolness that Mary looked up in her face to know if she had really said so.
"No," she replied.
"No more am I," echoed Hesper; "that is the one good thing in the business: I sha'n't break my heart, as some girls do.

At least, so they say--I don't believe it: how could a girl be so indecent?
It is bad enough to marry a man: that one can't avoid; but to die of a broken heart is to be a traitor to your sex.

As if women couldn't live without men!" Mary smiled and was silent.