Catherine Linton

He shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.

He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine.

I’d as soon put that little canary into the park on a winter’s day, as recommend you to bestow your heart on him!

Nobody loves you—nobody will cry for you when you die! I wouldn’t be you!

I love papa better than myself, Ellen; and I know it by this: I pray every night that I may live after him; because I would rather be miserable than that he should be.