Fate is a cunning hussy

"Fate is a cunning hussy." - Elizabeth Gaskell

An amusing zinger from an unfairly overlooked Victorian novelist. The fun passage (which defies that whole stodgy Victorian writer thing) inspired an image of fate's invisible hand coquettishly waving a handkerchief that lures us down a new road. Can we resist temptation? Should we? 

"If Squire Hamley had been unable to tell Molly who had ever been thought of as her father's second wife, fate was all this time preparing an answer of a pretty positive kind to her wondering curiosity. But fate is a cunning hussy, and builds up her plans as imperceptibly as a bird builds her nest; and with much the same kind of unconsidered trifles." - Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters. 

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