"Whatever mother thinks, Robert finally thinks the same. He is more afraid of mother than we are. I despise a man who can't stick to his own opinion."
"But if his opinion is wrong?"
"All the same, he ought to stick to it; I should. I think Dora is a lovely woman, and good, and clever. Mother ought to be proud of her new daughter."
"Mother had a high ideal for Robert's wife."
"One that nobody but a Traquair Campbell—or a Jane Dalkeith could fill."
"Jane might have pleased her."
"No one pleases mother! If you gave her the whites of your eyes, she would not be pleased."
"You must not forget, Christina, that she is our mother, and that the Scriptures command us to honor her."
"Sometimes, and in some cases, Isabel, that command is a gey hard one—I might say an impossible one."
"Perhaps, but the Holy Word makes no exceptions—good or bad, wise or foolish, they are to be honored. Dr. Robertson said so, in his last sermon to the Sunday School."