comparison about sister and brother is all nonsense: she is too rich and proud to entertain fraternal sentiments for me."
"You don't know her, Robert; and somehow, I fancy now (I had other ideas formerly), that you cannot know her: you and she are not so constructed as to be able thoroughly to understand each other."
"It may be so. I esteem her; I admire her; and yet my impressions concerning her are harsh—perhaps uncharitable. I believe, for instance, that she is incapable of love"
"Shirley incapable of love!"
"That she will never marry: I imagine her jealous of compromising her pride, of relinquishing her power, of sharing her property."
"Shirley has hurt your amour-propre."
"She did hurt it—though I had not an emotion of tenderness, not a spark of passion for her."
"Then, Robert, it was very wicked in you to want to marry her."
"And very mean, my little pastor, my pretty priestess. I never wanted to kiss Miss Keeldar in my life, though she has fine lips, scarlet and round, as ripe cherries; or, if I did wish it, it was the mere desire of the eye."
"I doubt, now, whether you are speaking the truth: the grapes or the cherries are sour—'hung too high.'"
"She has a pretty figure, a pretty face, beautiful hair: I acknowledge all her charms and feel none of them; or only feel them in a way she would disdain. I suppose I was truly tempted, by the mere gilding
