I began to wonder if, after all, I had chosen the right girl.

Suppose Hannah was not all I thought her! What a terrible thing it would be for Josiah.

What data, sufficient to reason upon, had I possessed?
How did I know that Hannah was not a lazy, ill- tempered girl, a continual thorn in the side of her poor, overworked mother, and a perpetual blister to her younger brothers and sisters?
How did I know she had been well brought up?
Her father might be a precious old fraud: most seemingly pious men are.

She may have learned from him only hypocrisy.
"Then also, how did I know that Juliana's merry childishness would not ripen into sweet, cheerful womanliness?
Her father, for all I knew to the contrary, might be the model of what a retired sea-captain should be; with possibly a snug little sum safely invested somewhere.

And Juliana was his only child.