Ellen Wood

“ An impulse rose within her that she would tell him all; the few words dropped by Susan and Joyce, twelve months before, the conversation she had just overheard; but in that moment of renewed confidence, it did appear to her that she must have been very foolish to attach importance to it—that a sort of humiliation, in listening to the converse of servants, was reflected on her, and she remained silent.
There never was a passion in this world—there never will be one—so fantastic, so delusive, so powerful as jealousy. Mr. Carlyle dismissed the episode from his thoughts ”

“ Ask."
"I will presently, in a few minutes," answered Joyce, with a real shiver. "You are not going in, are you, ma'am?" she uttered, in apprehension, as Miss Carlyle began to steal on tip-toe to the inner-door, and Joyce had a lively consciousness that her sight would not be an agreeable one to Lady Isabel. "They want the room free; they sent me out."
"Not I," answered Miss Corny. "I could do no good; and those who cannot, are better away."
"Just what Mr. Wainwright said when he dismissed me," murmured Joyce. And Miss Carlyle finally passed into the corridor and withdrew. ”

“ More timid and sensitive by nature than many would believe or can imagine, reared in seclusion more simply and quietly than falls to the general lot of peers' daughters, completely inexperienced, Isabel was unfit to battle with the world—totally unfit to battle with Miss Carlyle. ”

“ There's not a young man living but what's fond of a sly kiss in the dark, if he can get it. He gave her that locket and chain she wears."
"Who wears?" retorted Joyce, determined not graciously to countenance the subject. "I don't want to hear anything about it."
"'Who,' now! Why, Miss Barbara. She has hardly had it off her neck since, my belief is she wears it in her sleep."
"More simpleton she," returned Joyce.
"The night before he left West Lynne to marry Lady Isabel—and didn't the news come upon us like a thunderclap!—Miss Barbara had been at Miss Carlyle's and he brought her home. ”

“ She'll often steal out to the gate about the time she knows he'll be passing, and watch him by, not letting him see her. It is nothing but her unhappiness, her jealousy of Lady Isabel, that makes her cross. I assure you, Joyce, in this past year she had so changed that she's not like the same person. If Mr. Carlyle should ever get tired of my lady, and—"
"Wilson," harshly interrupted Joyce, "have the goodness to recollect yourself."
"What have I said not? Nothing but truth. Men are shamefully fickle, husbands worse than sweethearts, and I'm sure I'm not thinking of anything wrong. ”

“ It is in the nature of man to be fickle, specially those that can boast of their own good looks, like Mr. Carlyle."
"Mr. Carlyle's not fickle."
"I can tell you more yet. Two or three days after that, Miss Corny came up to our house with the news of his marriage. I was in mistress's bedroom, and they were in the room underneath, the windows open, and I heard Miss Corny tell the tale, for I was leaning out. Up came Miss Barbara upon an excuse and flew into her room, and I went into the corridor. ”

“ Archibald, promise it!"
"I will promise you anything in reason," he replied, bewildered with her words, "but I do not know what you mean. There is no possibility of my marrying any one, Isabel; you are my wife." ”

“ Carlyle's shoulder, which his own head scarcely reached, "I am sometimes at death-beds where the clergyman is sent for in this desperate need to the fleeting spirit, and I am tempted to ask myself what good another man, priest though he be, can do at the twelfth hour, where accounts have not been made up previously?" ”

“ Fever and weakness had a struggle with each other and with her. One day, when she was dressing and sitting in her easy chair, Miss Carlyle entered.
"Of all the servants in the neighborhood, who should you suppose is come up after the place of nurse?"
"Indeed, I cannot guess."
"Why, Wilson, Mrs. Hare's maid. Three years and five months she has been with them, and now leaves in consequence of a fall out with Barbara. Will you see her?"
"Is she likely to suit? Is she a good servant?"
"She's not a bad servant, as servants go," responded Miss Carlyle. "She's steady and respectable ”