Page:Under Dispute (1924).pdf/225

 from a careful survey of the society which surrounded her, a society composed for the most part of insensitive, unrebellious men and women who had the habit of making the best of things. At times the cynicism is a trifle too pronounced, as when Eleanor Dashwood asks herself why Mr. Palmer is so ill-mannered:

"His temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding, like many others of his sex, that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, he was the husband of a very silly woman. But she knew that this kind of blunder was too common for any sensible man to be lastingly hurt by it."

At times simplicity and sincerity transcend the limits of likelihood, as when Elizabeth Watson says to her young sister:

"I should not like marrying a disagreeable man any more than yourself; but I do not think there are many very