Sabine Baring-Gould

“ There is not a shadow of evidence that could justify an indictment. All that can be stated that makes against Coppinger is that the one is a smuggler, the other was a Preventive man, and that the latter was found dead and with his head off, an unusual circumstance, but not sufficient to show that he had been decapitated by any man, nor that the man who decapitated him was Coppinger. ”

“ I have no doubt if you asked him to throw up his smuggling that he would promise to do so. Whether he would keep his promise is another matter. Many a girl has made her lover swear to give up gambling, and on that understanding has married him; but I reckon none have been able to keep their husbands to the engagement. Gambling, smuggling, and poaching, my dear, are in the blood. A man brings the love of adventure, the love of running a risk, into the world with him. ”

“ I think him a man of very few scruples. But he has done liberal things—he is open-handed, that all say. A hard liver, and with a rough tongue, and yet with some of the polish of a gentleman; a man with the passions of a devil, but not without in him some sparks of divine light. ”

“ Menaida started up: "And—you sell yourself to this man for Jamie?"
"Yes, uncle, to make a man of Jamie."
"On the chance, Judith, on the very doubtful chance of making a man of Jamie, you rush on the certainty of making' a ruin of yourself. That man—that Coppinger to be trusted with you! A fair little vessel, richly laden, with silken sail, and cedar sides, comes skimmering over the sea, and—Heaven forgive me if I judge wrongly—but I think he is a wrecker, enticing, constraining you on to the reefs where you will break up, and all your treasures will—not fall to him—but sink ”

“ And who is the happy man to be? Not Scantlebray, senior, I trust, whose wife is dying."
"No—Captain Coppinger."
"Cruel Coppinger! "Uncle Zachie put down his pipe so suddenly on the bench by him that he broke it. "Cruel Coppinger! never!"
She said nothing to this, but rose and walked, with her head down, along the bank, and put her hands among the waving pink bunches of tamarisk bloom, sweeping the heads with her own delicate, hand as she passed. Then she came back to the boat arbor and reseated herself. ”

“ My aunt would not transfer the guardianship to me unless I were qualified to undertake and exercise it properly, according to her ideas, and that could be only by my becoming engaged to be married to a man of substance. ”