"It is pathetic to see you waste your time painting mediocre pictures, when as a lecturer upon love you could instruct your thousands." "The thousands would never satisfy me," I retorted, "so long as you remained uninstructed, for in your single person you would so swell the sum of human ignorance on that subject that my teaching would be for ever in vain." "Very clever indeed! Well, what will Mr.Monroe say to me when I return to New York without his daughter, or with his son-in-law ?" "He has never denied Francesca anything in her life; why should he draw the line at a Scotsman?
I am much more concerned about Mr.Macdonald's congregation." "I am not anxious about that," said Salemina loyally.

"Francesca would be the life of an Inchcaldy parish." "I dare say," I observed, "but she might be the death of the pastor." "I am ashamed of you, Penelope; or I should be if you meant what you say.

She can make the people love her if she tries; when did she ever fail at that?
But with Mr.Macdonald's talent, to say nothing of his family connections, he is sure to get a church in Edinburgh in a few years if he wishes.

Undoubtedly, it would not be a great match in a money sense.

I suppose he has a manse and three or four hundred pounds a year." "That sum would do nicely for cabs." "Penelope, you are flippant!" "I don't mean it, dear; it's only for fun; and it would be so absurd if we should leave Francesca over here as the presiding genius of an Inchcaldy parsonage--I mean a manse!" "It isn't as if she were penniless," continued Salemina; "she has fortune enough to assure her own independence, and not enough to threaten his--the ideal amount.