Lucy Maud Montgomery

“ And all HE said was, 'Wait until you see Kilmeny Gordon, sir.' Well, I WILL wait till I see her, but I shall look at her with the eyes of sixty-five, mind you, not the eyes of twenty-four. And if she isn't what your wife ought to be, sir, you give her up or paddle your own canoe. I shall not aid or abet you in making a fool of yourself and spoiling your life. ”

“ Eric, what about this girl? I hope you haven't gone and made a fool of yourself. It sounds remarkably like it. A girl that has been dumb all her life--a girl with no right to her father's name--a country girl brought up in a place like Lindsay! Your wife will have to fill your mother's place,--and your mother was a pearl among women. ”

“ She has never been away from us for a day--she is all the brightness there is in our lives. It is very kind of you to say that she can come home whenever she likes, but there will be a great difference. She will belong to your world and not to ours. That is for the best--and we wouldn't have it otherwise. But let us keep her as our own for this one winter yet."
Eric yielded with the best grace he could muster. After all, he reflected, Lindsay was not so far from Queenslea, and there were such things as boats and trains.
"Have you told your father about all this yet?" ”