But let an old lady be ever so strict towards her own sex, she likes a little wickedness in a young man,--if only he does not carry it to the extent of marrying the wrong sort of young woman.
Sophia Mellerby was a tall, graceful, well-formed girl, showing her high blood in every line of her face.

On her mother's side she had come from the Ancrums, whose family, as everybody knows, is one of the oldest in England; and, as the Earl had said, the Mellerbys had been Mellerbys from the time of King John, and had been living on the same spot for at least four centuries.

They were and always had been Mellerbys of Mellerby,--the very name of the parish being the same as that of the family.

If Sophia Mellerby did not shew breeding, what girl could shew it?
She was fair, with a somewhat thin oval face, with dark eyes, and an almost perfect Grecian nose.

Her mouth was small, and her chin delicately formed.