How we cite our quotes: Volume.Part.Chapter.Paragraph
Quote #4
The poor girl looked so pale and sad, and came forward to welcome me so readily and prettily, that the resolution to lecture her on her caprice and indecision, which I had been forming all the way up-stairs, failed me on the spot. (1.2.2.29)
A good lecture is no match for a weepy Laura Fairlie, apparently. We're starting to think that Laura's superpower of emotional meltdown is pretty rad.
Quote #5
The principle I maintain is a recognized principle. If you were to apply at the nearest town here, to the first respectable solicitor you could find, he would tell you, as a stranger, what I tell you as a friend. He would inform you that it is against all rules to abandon the lady's money entirely to the man she marries. (1.2.4.29)
Mr. Gilmore lays the smack down here, legal-style. The book doles out a lot of negative commentary about marriage, but Gilmore raises a good point by noting that there are "principles" in place that can protect wives. Unfortunately, those principles only work if they are actually enforced.
Quote #6
Which gets on best, do you think, of two poor starving dressmakers—the woman who resists temptation, and is honest, or the woman who falls under temptation, and steals? You all know that stealing is the making of that second woman's fortune […] and she is relieved as the breaker of a commandment, when she would have been left to starve as the keeper of it. (2.1.3.77)
Ah, gather round children, it's time for moral lessons with Count Fosco! He's not exactly Mr. Rogers. Fosco here argues that breaking the law is okay, since laws are more like guidelines than written in stone. Relativism is Fosco's middle name.