How I envy those clerks who go by to their offices in the morning! There's the day's work cut out for them; no question of mood and feeling; they hav… - George Gissing

That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be
generous.

There should be no such thing as a class of females vulgarized by the necessity of finding daily amusement.

Isn’t it a most ridiculous thing that married people who both wish to separate can’t do so and be quite free again?’

‘I suppose it would lead to all sorts of troubles — don’t you think?’

‘So people say about every new step in civilisation. What would have been thought twenty years ago of a proposal to make all married women independent of their husbands in money matters? All sorts of absurd dangers were foreseen, no doubt. And it’s the same now about divorce. In America people can get divorced if they don’t suit each other — at all events in some of the States — and does any harm come of it? Just the opposite I should think.’

Edith mused. Such speculations were daring, but she had grown accustomed to think of Amy as an ‘advanced’ woman, and liked to imitate her in this respect.