She said that she was not thinking of me, and that Jephson was, no doubt, sensible enough (Jephson is engaged), but she did not see the object of bringing half the parish into it.

(Nobody suggested bringing "half the parish" into it.

Ethelbertha will talk so wildly.) To suppose that Brown and MacShaughnassy could be of any use whatever, she considered absurd.

What could a couple of raw bachelors know about life and human nature?
As regarded MacShaughnassy in particular, she was of opinion that if we only wanted out of him all that _he_ knew, and could keep him to the subject, we ought to be able to get that into about a page.
My wife's present estimate of MacShaughnassy's knowledge is the result of reaction.

The first time she ever saw him, she and he got on wonderfully well together; and when I returned to the drawing-room, after seeing him down to the gate, her first words were, "What a wonderful man that Mr.
MacShaughnassy is.