Quotation from: Villette

Written by: Charlotte Bronte

"She tells me," I answered, "that they are poor at home; she always
speaks quite candidly on such points: you never find her lying, as
these foreigners will often lie. Her parents have a large family: they
occupy such a station and possess such connections as, in their
opinion, demand display; stringent necessity of circumstances and
inherent thoughtlessness of disposition combined, have engendered
reckless unscrupulousness as to how they obtain the means of
sustaining a good appearance. This is the state of things, and the
only state of things, she has seen from childhood upwards."