You were fond of Ada Brown, I remember, and it was because I was lame and we were so poor and all, that you couldn't go with her and she got engaged to Jim Harvey.

I hope you don't think I have a bad heart, Peter, but I was always glad that Ada didn't turn out very well.

Every time I saw her getting homelier and kind of bedraggled like, I said to myself, well, I've saved Peter from that at any rate.

I couldn't have borne it if she had turned out the kind of a person you ought to have married." "You shouldn't have worried, Ellen; very few men marry the first woman they are interested in." "There was a girl you used to write home about--at that boarding-house.
I used to get you to write.

I daresay you thought I was just curious.
But I was trying to find out something that would make me perfectly sure she wasn't good enough for you.