Anne Brontë

“ I was burning with anger; but I suppressed all outward manifestations of it, and only bit my lip and pretended to arrange my work.
'At any rate,' resumed she, pursuing her advantage, 'you can console yourself with the assurance that you are worthy of all the love he gives to you.'
'You flatter me,' said I; 'but, at least, I can try to be worthy of it.' And then I turned the conversation. ”

“ However we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won Than women's are.'
'Do you mean by that, that your fancies are lost to me, and won by Lady Lowborough?'
'No! heaven is my witness that I think her mere dust and ashes in comparison with you, and shall continue to think so, unless you drive me from you by too much severity. She is a daughter of earth; you are an angel of heaven; only be not too austere in your divinity, and remember that I am a poor, fallible mortal. Come now, Helen ”

“ Lord Lowborough was quite as remarkable for his abstemiousness for some time before you married him, as he is now, I have heard.'
'Oh, about the wine you mean - yes, he's safe enough for that. And as to looking askance to another woman, he's safe enough for that too, while I live, for he worships the very ground I tread on.'
'Indeed! and are you sure you deserve it?'
'Why, as to that, I can't say: you know we're all fallible creatures, Helen; we none of us deserve to be worshipped. ”

“ Is it nothing to trifle with your friend's feelings and mine - to endeavour to steal a woman's affections from her husband - what he values more than his gold, and therefore what it is more dishonest to take? ”

“ I had taken too much wine, and I was scarcely myself at the time.'
'You often take too much; and that is another practice I detest.' He looked up astonished at my warmth. 'Yes,' I continued; 'I never mentioned it before, because I was ashamed to do so; but now I'll tell you that it distresses me, and may disgust me, if you go on and suffer the habit to grow upon you, as it will if you don't check it in time. But the whole system of your conduct to Lady Lowborough is not referable to wine ”