The well-to-do ones are like sisters and brothers, and the poor ones don't seem to be no connection at all." "Well, let's hope that Miss Elisabeth will marry, and have a husband to work for her when Miss Farringdon is dead and gone." "Husbands are as uncertain as wills, Mrs.Bateson, and more sure to give offence to them that trust in them; besides, I doubt if Miss Elisabeth is handsome enough to get a husband.

The gentry think a powerful lot of looks in choosing a wife." Mrs.Bateson took up the cudgels on Elisabeth's behalf.

"She mayn't be exactly handsome--I don't pretend as she is; but she has a wonderful way of dressing herself, and looking for all the world like a fashion-plate; and some men have a keen eye for clothes." "I think nothing of fine clothes myself.

Saint Peter warns us against braiding of hair and putting on of apparel; and when all's said and done it don't go as far as a good complexion, and we don't need any apostle to tell us that--we can see it for ourselves." "And as for cleverness, there ain't her like in all Mershire," continued Mrs.Bateson.
"Bless you! cleverness never yet helped a woman in getting a husband, and never will; though if she's got enough of it, it may keep her from ever having one.

I don't hold with cleverness in a woman myself; it has always ended in mischief, from the time when the woman ate a bit of the Tree of Knowledge, and there was such a to-do about it." "I wish she'd marry Mr.Christopher; he worships the very ground she walks on, and she couldn't find a better man if she swept out all the corners of the earth looking for one." "Well, at any rate, she knows all about him; that is something.