Niece

“ Once when you were but little more than a child, and your boy-lover, or husband, had left you alone, a young stranger in a strange land—a girl friendless, penniless, beautiful, and so in deadly peril of perdition, I took you on your own representation, and introduced you into my own family as the governess of my niece. ”

“ You see, my dear aunt, that I am in a great hurry by my writing, but no hurry, believe me, can drive out of my mind the remembrance of all the kindness I received at Black Castle. Oh, continue to love your niece; you cannot imagine the pleasure she felt when you kissed her, and said you loved her a thousand times better than ever you did before. ”

“ Consequently, we commenced badly, and I, who am in my way proud as you are, stood aloof from you and exercised the duties of guardian and uncle without showing that my heart was filled with love for you. Thus have we lived, with a spiritual gulf dividing us. My dear niece, you are no longer a child, you are a woman who can think for herself, who is open to reason. ”

“ Two or three days afterwards I met his pretty niece, who obligingly upbraided me for not having yet availed myself of her uncle’s invitation to supper; the niece was a dainty morsel worthy of a king, and, her reproaches being very flattering to my vanity I promised I would come the next day. In less than a week it turned out a serious engagement. I fell in love with the interesting niece, who, being full of wit and well disposed to enjoy herself, had no love for me, and granted me no favour. ”

“ Now I sincerely thank God that He led you to me, to reclaim me and give me something to live for. If you will permit me, my dear niece, I will hereafter devote my whole life to you, and earnestly try to promote your happiness. ”

“ My niece is an angel. Her former maid, who died last spring, had been with her twenty years and worshipped the ground she walked on. She's a kind mistress to all, and where the mistress is kind, as you know, the servants are generally good-humored, so you'll probably get on well enough with the rest of the household. And you're the very woman I want for my niece: quiet, well-mannered, and educated above your station. ”

“ A conclusion she had arrived at from no better evidence than the well-bred appearance and manners of the aunt, and the exquisite delicacy of the niece's form and features, with the undefinable air of distinction which accompanied even her most careless and sportive moments. ”

“ That the niece whom she had nursed back to life and happiness, and brought to love her as a mother, should be at the mercy of a man whom she looked on as a heartless profligate, was dreadful to her beyond measure. ”

“ I give my niece's maid's description of my sister's title with a sense of the highest relish. My poor dear sister is a tiresome woman who married a foreigner. To resume: the door opened; her ladyship, the Countess, appeared in the parlour, and the Young Person was struck of a heap. ”

“ I would have given you the hundred guineas if your niece had treated me as a friend, but she refused me favours a vestal might have granted, and you must be aware that she is by no means a vestal.”
“Don’t mind my laughing. My niece is an innocent, giddy girl; she loves you, but she is afraid you have only a passing whim for her. ”

“ My niece is an intelligent girl, and your pupil—if you don't mind me saying so—is not too well furnished with mental ability. In spite of your efforts, he is quite a fool. If you had not been under the mistaken impression that I was a hard-up woman, taking my niece about for the purpose of making a good marriage for her, and if you had not allowed yourself to be influenced by your American friend, you would have seen there was every reason why I should strongly object to a marriage. ”

“ Did you say Sabrina's Niece's Other Aunt—or what?
Phil. Sabrina's Uncle's Other Niece was what I said—not that it signifies.
Mrs. M.G. Oh, but I always attach the greatest importance to names, myself. And do you know him?
Phil. What, TABLETT? Oh, yes—decent little chap; not much to say for himself, you know.
Mrs. M.G. I don't mind that when a man is clever—do you think you could bring him up and introduce him? ”

“ Now, I was thinking if I could get her a place as companion or governess, what an excellent thing it would be for her."
"My love," said her husband, "make yourself perfectly easy; your niece is no burden to me; she is perfectly welcome here, as long as she needs a home—and with regard to her pocket-money, let her fare as the other girls do." ”

“ SIR WIL. I confess I have been a little in disguise, as they say. 'Sheart! and I'm sorry for't. What would you have? I hope I committed no offence, aunt—and if I did I am willing to make satisfaction; and what can a man say fairer? If I have broke anything I'll pay for't, an it cost a pound. And so let that content for what's past, and make no more words. For what's to come, to pleasure you I'm willing to marry my cousin. So, pray, let's all be friends, she and I are agreed upon the matter before a witness.
LADY. How's this, dear niece? Have I any comfort? Can this be true? ”

“ There will be no question of such a thing in this instance, sir; and, after all, what is marrying beneath one? My niece's intended is an honest, and therefore a noble, man, and I am sure it will be her fault if she does not lead a life of perfect happiness with him. ”

“ You tell me you are secure of having either the aunt or the niece, and that you might have married the aunt before this, whose jointure you say is immense, but that you prefer the niece on account of her ready money. Pray, sir, take a fool's advice for once, and marry the first you can get. You will pardon my offering my advice, as you know I sincerely wish you well. Shall draw on you per next post, in favour of Messieurs John Drugget and company, at fourteen days, which doubt not your honouring, and am, Sir, your humble servant, 'SAM. COSGRAVE.' ”

“ Very well; as she turns her head away with an air of obstinacy and contempt—for she is a contemptuous creature, that she is! a niece who will treat me as my honored sister-in-law did—do you tell her what I will do if she will give up her dauber of tulips. I will take care of all her debts, I will let her keep her hôtel, her garden, her pavilion, her diamonds, her farm in Beauvoisis, in fact everything she has left now. ”

“ Niece. As we do! That's a fine life, indeed, with one servant of each sex. Let's see how many things our coachman is good for—He rubs down his horses, lays the cloth, whets the knives, and sometimes makes beds.
[Pg 220]
Aunt. A good servant should turn his hand to everything in a family.
Niece. Nay, there's not a creature in our family that has not two or three different duties. As John is butler, footman, and coachman, so Mary is cook, laundress, and chamber-maid. ”

“ Fruitful, the head fruitful, that bodes horns; the fruit of the head is horns. Dear niece, stay at home--for by the head of the house is meant the husband; the prophecy needs no explanation.
ANG. Well, but I can neither make you a cuckold, uncle, by going abroad, nor secure you from being one by staying at home. ”

“ "You have a daughter, Captain Reece,
Ten female cousins and a niece,
A ma, if what I'm told is true,
Six sisters, and an aunt or two.
"Now, somehow, sir, it seems to me,
More friendly-like we all should be.
If you united of 'em to
Unmarried members of the crew. ”

“ Waring, and demonstrated the truth of her positions. Her beautiful, true-hearted niece has become the bride of a man possessing all the external advantages sought to be obtained by Mr. and Mrs. Lovering in the proposed marriage with Mr. Allen; and what is more and better, of one whose love of truth and goodness is genuine, and whose appreciation of his wife rests on a perception of her womanly virtues. ”

“ The aunt was eager to mate her niece to a man of her own selection and a heavy purse. The niece until recently had looked with some favour upon a young man, handsome enough—even Miss O'Neil admitted that—and a gentleman beyond question, but with no visible fortune. ”

“ But the active dame was not given to wool-gathering, and looking up quickly, she caught the expression of her niece, and guessed its meaning.
‘Nay, thou art mistaken,’ she said, shaking her head, and that curious smile again appeared on her face; ‘there has only been one man that was ever more than another to me, and that’s thy uncle.... But I’ll tell thee a secret, child; it can do no harm. Hast forgotten what I was telling thee and Philip in the garden yesterday?’
‘About the two lovers? ”

“ Some one suggested to me that—that some people might suppose that I—expected help from you, or—or——Oh, please understand, uncle dear, without any more explaining!'
'Some one suggested that the pretty niece was going to see a rich old uncle who would probably make her his heiress,—was that it? ”

“ The pretty Creature her Niece does all she can to be as disagreeable as her Aunt; and, if she is not so offensive to the Eye, she is quite as much to the Ear, and makes up all she wants in a confident Air, by a nauseous Rattle of the Nose, when the Snuff is delivered, and the Fingers make the Stops and Closes on the Nostrils.... ”

“ The niece inherits her aunt’s position, and cares for her children, while the aunt retires to the peace of a single life, or very often finds a new partner.”229.1 Thus it may be presumed that a dead wife, if she returned and found a relative of her own in her husband’s arms, would submit to a relationship between them such as she herself might in a year or two have voluntarily initiated, satisfied that her children, if any, would be looked after. ”

“ You've found her all that you expected, have you not? So clever, clear-headed, bright, and, withal, so docile and obedient? Yet she it was who quarrelled with your nieces, and told you that either she or they must leave your house. ”

“ Where's the other niece? Aren't there three of them?"
"Yes. The other's coming. Silas Watson, my lawyer, has just telegraphed from New York that he's bringing Patricia back with him."
"Had to send for her, eh?" ”

“ The book introduces a feature that may interest the sexologist: frequent passionate love among near kinsmen. Two sisters are in love with their brothers. A romance between uncle and niece. The heroes and heroines are awakened to love for the most part at the dangerous age of forty. ”

“ Aunt Jane's nieces are shown to be as frankly adventurous as the average clear headed American girl, but their experiences amid the environments of an ancient and still primitive civilization are in no wise extraordinary. ”

“ The single gentlewomen, to a remarkable number, whom she regarded and treated as nieces, though they were only daughters of cousins, were such objects of her tender solicitude that, she and Henry and Albert being alike childless, the delightful thing to think of was, on certain contingencies, the nieces' prospective wealth. ”

“ Preparations were speedily pushed forward for the wedding, which the nieces undertook to manage themselves, the prospective bride and groom being too busy at the newspaper office to devote much attention to the preliminaries of the great event. ”

“ Touchett used to think that she reminded him of his wife when his wife was in her teens. It was because she was fresh and natural and quick to understand, to speak—so many characteristics of her niece—that he had fallen in love with Mrs. ”

“ My nephews and nieces, four in number, three girls and a boy, do not, I regret to say, interest me very deeply; they are amiable, healthy children, with a confined horizon, rather stolid; they never seem to quarrel or to have any particular preferences. ”

“ She had hoped by adopting John Merrick's nieces as her protégées and introducing them to society to find a novel and pleasurable excitement that would serve to take her out of her unfortunate ennui—a condition to which she had practically been born. ”

“ Go on, Mollie,” from Eva.
which you are so anxious to pay back when you grow up. Well, we shall arrange that, too, and for the present, adieu, my newly-found nieces. With love and good wishes to Mollie, Eileen, Eva, Doris and Baby, from Your affectionate Uncle, Henry Hudson. ”

“ All sisters, real or fictitious, are mutually mothers of all their children. The children of a man’s brothers are not his nephews and nieces, but his sons and daughters; his sisters’ children are his nephews and nieces, [933] probably because these names have been given at an epoch when the brothers married groups of sisters in common, but not their own sisters. ”

“ Aren't they worthy the best that life has to offer? And why shouldn't they enter society, if you do your full duty? Once get them properly introduced and they will be able to hold their own with perfect ease. Give me the credit for knowing these things, John, and try to help your nieces to attain their ambition. ”

“ Incest with thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not commit incest with her.
12. Incest with thy father's sister thou shalt not commit: she is thy father's near kinswoman.
13. Incest thou shalt not commit with thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman.
14. Incest with thy father's brother thou shalt not commit: thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt. ”

“ His having been in love with the aunt gives Cecilia an additional interest with him. I like the idea,—a very proper compliment to an aunt! I rather imagine indeed that nieces are seldom chosen but out of compliment to some [284] aunt or another. I dare say Ben was in love with me once, and would never have thought of you if he had not supposed me dead of scarlet fever. ”