There was something in Miss Stackpole he had begun to like; it seemed to him that if she was not a charming woman she was at least a very good "sort." She was wanting in distinction, but, as Isabel had said, she was brave: she went into cages, she flourished lashes, like a spangled lion-tamer.

He had not supposed her to be capable of vulgar arts, but these last words struck him as a false note.

When a marriageable young woman urges matrimony on an unencumbered young man the most obvious explanation of her conduct is not the altruistic impulse.
"Ah, well now, there's a good deal to be said about that," Ralph rejoined.
"There may be, but that's the principal thing.

I must say I think it looks very exclusive, going round all alone, as if you thought no woman was good enough for you.

Do you think you're better than any one else in the world?
In America it's usual for people to marry." "If it's my duty," Ralph asked, "is it not, by analogy, yours as well ?" Miss Stackpole's ocular surfaces unwinkingly caught the sun.