This came of keeping one's head, she sometimes thought, though she never put her thought into words--this and all things else, including financial security and the perpetual pursuit of the elusive and lawless male.

For at sixty-two she still felt young and she believed herself to be fascinating.
But Gabriella, patiently stitching bias velvet bands on the brim of a straw hat for the early spring trade, felt that she was sustained neither by the pleasures of vanity nor by the sounder consolations of virtue.

Her philosophy was quite as simple, if not so material, as Madame's.

Human nature was divided between the victors and the victims, and the chief thing was not to let oneself become a victim.

Her theory, like those of greater philosophers, was rooted not in reason, but in character, and she believed in life with all the sanguine richness of her blood.