"Maybe she was too good."

"You abominable child. A woman can't be too good."

"Perhaps not. But I fancy she can make a man think so. When he has
different tastes."

"Women are as they are born. My mother would not have condescended to lower
herself to the level of those creatures who fascinated my father."

"Well, I wouldn't, neither. I'd just light out and leave him. Why didn't
mother get a divorce?"

"A divorce? Why, she has never received any one in her house who has been
divorced. Neither have I except in one or two cases where very dear friends
had been forced by circumstances into the divorce court. I didn't approve
even then. People should wash their dirty linen at home."

"Time moves, as I remarked just now. Nothing would stop me; if, for
instance, I had been persuaded into marrying a member of the A. A. and he
was in the way of ruining my young life. You should be thankful if I did
decide to marry Mr. Dwight--mind, I don't say I care the tip of my little
finger for him. I barely know him. But if I did you would have to admit
that I was following the best Ballinger instincts, for he doesn't drink,
or dissipate in any way; and everybody says he works hard and is as steady
as--I was going to say as a judge, but I've been told that all judges, in
this town at least, are not as steady as you think. Anyhow, he is. His
family is as old as ours, even if it did have reverses or something. And
you can't deny that he is a gentleman, every inch of him."