Mary Barton

"If my child lies dying, does the rich man bring the wine or broth that might save his life?"

"The sayings of her absent, her mysterious aunt, Esther, had an unacknowledged influence over Mary. She knew she was pretty...So with this consciousness she had early determined that her beauty should make her a lady; the rank to which she firmly believed her lost Aunt Esther had arrived." (62)

"There was something crooked in her conscience afterall; for this very resolution seemed an acknowledgement that it was wrong to meet him at any time; and yet she had brought herself to think her conduct quite innocent and proper...as sure to end in her father's good and happiness. " (131)

"What shall I do? How can I keep her from being such a one as I am; such a wretched, loathsome creature! She was listening just as I listened, and loving just as I loved, and the end will be just like my end. How shall I save her? She won't hearken to warning, or heed it more than I did." (170)

"Herself, a day, an hour ago; and herself now. For we have every one of us felt how a very few minutes of the months and years called life, will sometimes suffice to place all time past and future in an entirely new light; will make us see the vanity or the criminality of the bye-gone, and so change the aspect of the coming time, that we look with loathing on the very thing we have most desired. A few moments may change our character for life, by giving a totally different direction to our aims and energies." (176)

"Mary was glad she had not gone into service, and said so." (p.69)