Charles Dickens

“ I have grown up, battling every inch of my way.’
‘I never knew you were unhappy, my child.’
‘Father, I always knew it. In this strife I have almost repulsed and crushed my better angel into a demon. What I have learned has left me doubting, misbelieving, despising, regretting, what I have not learned; and my dismal resource has been to think that life would soon go by, and that nothing in it could be worth the pain and trouble of a contest.’
‘And you so young, Louisa!’ he said with pity. ”

“ She struck herself with both her hands upon her bosom.
‘If it had ever been here, its ashes alone would save me from the void in which my whole life sinks. I did not mean to say this; but, father, you remember the last time we conversed in this room?’
He had been so wholly unprepared for what he heard now, that it was with difficulty he answered, ‘Yes, Louisa.’
‘What has risen to my lips now, would have risen to my lips then, if you had given me a moment’s help. I don’t reproach you, father. What you have never nurtured in me, you have never nurtured in yourself; but O! ”

“ He sat writing in the room with the deadly statistical clock, proving something no doubt - probably, in the main, that the Good Samaritan was a Bad Economist. The noise of the rain did not disturb him much ”