As too few things are certain, novel writers less like truth in their descriptions, than where ample wealth falls upon the hero just in the nick of time.

Providence intends to teach by penury: yes, and by prosperity too: and we almost never see the reward given, or the no less reward withheld, just as the scholar has begun to spell his lesson, and before he has had the chance of getting it by heart.
That another death should occur, in the progress of this tale, must be counted for no fault of mine; especially as I am not about to introduce another death-bed.

One need not have the mummy always at our feasts.
Surely, too, these deaths have ever been on fit occasion: one broken heart; one bereaved, yet comforted; and one which perished in its sin of uttermost hard-heartedness.

And here, if any insurance clerk, or other interested person, will show cause why Mrs.Jane Mackenzie should not die at the age of ninety-two, I would keep her alive if I could; but the fact is, I cannot: she died.

Henry Clements never saw her, any more that I, nor dear Maria.