'It is not for me to say, my dearest child, that your visions are fanciful; that you are building castles in the air, and looking for too great a degree of perfection in a sinful man. I own the truth of what you have said respecting the power of the mind. But may not contentions arise in the dispositions of intellectual people, and produce much discord? You will never find the soul so free from the trammels of earthly things as you desire it to be. You raise up an imaginary being, and make him possess impossible qualities. Good nature, grace, a manly port, and open countenance, with noble deeds, and a good name, are surely not to be despised.' 'Nor do I despise them, dear father! They may win many a maiden, and are undoubtedly great and noble qualities: but years of culture have so much refined my mind, that I cannot be content with ordinary natures. Cavendish is a nobleman, and more learned than Lord Willoughby; I own that Lord Helmingham is brave, and so is Kedington. Drury, of Arwarton, is a wise man in his way, and I greatly honor Sir Richard Broke. Mowbray is incomparably grand, but where would be the delight of being his Sultana? No, father, your love is infinitely to be preferred. I would not change it, for all the honors of a duchess, if my tongue were never to be permitted that kind of interchange of expression upon the best things of life, which I now enjoy in your society. I am contented; I never murmur; I am as happy as I wish to be; only let me remain so.' 'I never wish to urge you, my child, into any precipitate marriage. You have been so affectionate a daughter, and so dear a companion, that without you I should have been miserable. Yet I am not so unreasonable as to desire that you should remain single on my account. I know you will lever marry any one who is unworthy of De Freston's daughter.' 'Father, I will only say, I hope not. This I promise, that even if I should see the object like yourself in mind, and he should be a suitor for my hand, I will never wed him, though he were as rich as Crœsus, or as poor as Lazarus, without your full consent.' 'Say no more upon the subject, my child. I know your heart; it burns pure and spotless in your life. I do not wish to chain your will, or to choose for you; nor even to recommend, much less to urge a suit which you could not approve. I will still hope, that before my sun of life has gone down, I may see you settled with the object of such affection as you can bestow; a joy to yourself, an honor to your husband, and a comfort to your father.'