If it had to be one or the other, then father and mother both, then I, then all your friends, would have said without hesitation, 'Marry the woman.'" "I expected and hoped this would be your view of the situation.

I could not give up Beatrice, and I could not be a scoundrel to her." "You might have thought of another woman besides Beatrice.

Is a sin against a mother a less sin than one against a strange woman?
A mother is something sacred.

To wound her heart is to throw a stone at her.

You have committed a sort of sacrilege.