Most men are, more or less, the slave of circumstances.

I have suffered that kind of bondage all my life.

I have known, too, that you were in good hands--better off in every way than you could have been in my care--or I should have acted differently in relation to you." "There is no occasion to speak of the past," Marian replied gravely.
"Providence was very good to me; but I know my poor mother's last days were full of sorrow.

I cannot tell how far it might have been in your power to prevent that.

It is not my place to blame, or even to question your conduct." "You are an uncommonly dutiful daughter," Mr.Nowell exclaimed with rather a bitter laugh; "I thought that you would have repudiated me altogether perhaps; would have taken your tone from my father, who has grown pig-headed with old age, and cannot forgive me for having had the aspirations of a gentleman." "It is a pity there should not be union between my grandfather and you at such a moment as this," Marian said.
"O, we are civil enough to each other.