“Something that would do!” repeated Mrs. Elton. “Aye, that may suit your humble ideas of yourself;⁠—I know what a modest creature you are; but it will not satisfy your friends to have you taking up with anything that may offer, any inferior, commonplace situation, in a family not moving in a certain circle, or able to command the elegancies of life.”

“You are very obliging; but as to all that, I am very indifferent; it would be no object to me to be with the rich; my mortifications, I think, would only be the greater; I should suffer more from comparison. A gentleman’s family is all that I should condition for.”