There is, I fear, some bad principle in her; for surely the fierceness and overbearing spirit of her pride, and the malignant calumnies of her foul and scandalous tongue, can proceed from nothing that's good." "Well, Martha," observed her husband, "if the devilish and unaccountable hatred which she bears her fellow-creatures is violent, she has the satisfaction of knowing--and well she knows it--that it is returned to her with compound interest; I question if the devil himself is detested with such a venomous feeling as she is.

Her own husband and children cannot like a bone in her skin." "And yet," replied Alice, "you would have made this woman my mother-in-law! Do you think it was from any regard to us that she came here to propose a marriage between her son and me?
No, indeed, dear papa, it was for the purpose of securing the property, which her brother left me, for him who would otherwise have inherited it.

And do you imagine for a moment that Harry Woodward himself ever felt one emotion of personal affection for me?
If you do you are quite mistaken.

I knew and felt all along--even while he was assuming the part of the lover--that he actually hated, not only me, but every one of the family.
His object was the property, and so was that of his mother; but I absolve all the other members of the family from any knowledge of, or participation in, their schemes.

As it is, if you wish to see yourselves childless you will allow his, visits, or, if not, you will never permit his presence under this roof again.