Sober well-to-do men don't like such pretty wives.
 George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859). copy citation

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Author George Eliot
Source Adam Bede
Topic wife
Date 1859
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/507/507-h/507-h.htm

Context

“Pomfret's preoccupied mind did not prevent her from noticing what looked like a new flush of beauty in the little thing as she tied on her hat before the looking-glass. “That child gets prettier and prettier every day, I do believe,” was her inward comment. “The more's the pity. She'll get neither a place nor a husband any the sooner for it. Sober well-to-do men don't like such pretty wives. When I was a girl, I was more admired than if I had been so very pretty. However, she's reason to be grateful to me for teaching her something to get her bread with, better than farm-house work. They always told me I was good-natured—and that's the truth, and to my hurt too, else there's them in this house that wouldn't be here now to lord it over me in the housekeeper's room.”” source