[It] was the first time in my life I ever knew the meaning of that rare thing, tenderness. A quality different from kindliness, affectionateness, or … - Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

It was delightful to wake up early and refreshed, and come down to this sunshiny, cheerful breakfast-table, where, though nothing was grand, all was thoroughly comfortable.

They were neither of them in a high sphere of life. Rhoda was a farmer’s daughter, the only one among a troop of great rough brothers, some younger, some older than herself. She was not more than twelve years of age, and yet she had been for a year the little mistress of the family, for her mother had long been dead.

It is one of my decided opinions that married people ought to have no one, be the tie ever so close and dear, living permanently with them, to break the sacred duality — no, let me say the unity of their home.