Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 1.djvu/301

Rh As a man, I love him so much, that I wish him a better wife than I—one as good as himself, or better—if you think that possible—provided, she could like him;—but I never could, and therefore—"

"But why not? What objection do you find?"

"Firstly, he is, at least, forty years old—considerably more I should think, and I am but eighteen: secondly, he is narrow-minded and bigoted in the extreme; thirdly, his tastes and feelings are wholly dissimilar to mine; fourthly, his looks, voice, and manner are particularly displeasing to me; and finally, I have an aversion to his whole person that I never can surmount."

"Then you ought to surmount it! And please to compare him for a moment with Mr. Huntingdon, and, good looks apart (which contribute nothing to the merit of the man, or to the happiness of married life, and which you have so