but when a young man, be who he will, comes and makes love to a pretty girl, and promises marriage, he has no business to fly off from his word only because he grows poor, and a richer girl is ready to have him.
 Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811). copy citation

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Author Jane Austen
Source Sense and Sensibility
Topic marriage love
Date 1811
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21839/21839-h/21839-h.htm

Context

“Fifty thousand pounds! and by all accounts, it won't come before it's wanted; for they say he is all to pieces. No wonder! dashing about with his curricle and hunters! Well, it don't signify talking; but when a young man, be who he will, comes and makes love to a pretty girl, and promises marriage, he has no business to fly off from his word only because he grows poor, and a richer girl is ready to have him. Why don't he, in such a case, sell his horses, let his house, turn off his servants, and make a thorough reform at once? I warrant you, Miss Marianne would have been ready to wait till matters came round.” source