If I were a beggar, if I were below her in position, if I had not means to keep a wife,--even if I were a stranger to his name, he might be angry.
But I do not think he can be angry with me, now, because, in the most straightforward way, I come to the young lady's parents and tell them that I love their child.

Is it a disgrace to me that of all whom I have seen I think her to be the loveliest and best?
Her father may reject me; but he will be very unreasonable if he is angry with me.' She could not tell him about the dove and the kite, or the lamb and the wolf.

She could not explain to him that he was a sinner, unregenerated, a wild man in her estimation, a being of quite another kind than herself, and therefore altogether unfitted to be the husband of her girl! Her husband, no doubt, could do all this--if he would.

But then she too had her own skeleton in her own cupboard.

She was not quite assured of her own husband's regeneration.