Theodore Winthrop

“ It was agreed among all the gossips of the Province — and the gossips were right — that this was not a mercenary match. Youth and beauty on both sides, what could be more natural than love and marriage? And then the gossips went on to weigh the Brothertoft name against the Billop fortune, and to pronounce — for New York in those days loved blood more than wampum — that the pounds hardly balanced the pedigree. ”

“ Poor Edwin Brothertoft! He will come to disappointment and grief.”
With this, Miss Julia, striving to look Cassandra, marches off the stage.
But Edwin Brothertoft had no misgivings. If he had fancied any fault of temper in his betrothed, or perceived any divergence in principle, he had said to himself, “My faithful love shall gently name the fault, or point the error, and her love shall faithfully correct them.”
The Billop coach rumbled away on its little journey down Wall Street. Parson Barclay bagged his neat fee and glowed with good wishes. The world buzzed admiration. ”

“ Here followed another rhapsody from this poetic youth on the Manor and its people, the river and the Highlands.
She was proud of her lover’s eloquence, although she did not sympathize much in his enthusiasms. She had heard rivers talked of as water-power or roads for water-carriage. Mountains had been generally abused in the Billop establishment as ungainly squatters on good soil. Forests were so many feet of timber. Tenants were serfs, who could be squeezed to pay higher rents, and ought to be the slaves of their landlords. ”