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[Idiom] sentences from Dubliners

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gookenhaim

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Hi:) I am reading Dubliners but I came across some sentences I couldn't get the meaning of.

1. Miss Devlin had become Mrs Kearney out of spite
: Does it mean she wanted to marry him just to harm people or just to revenge?

2. She sat amid the chilly circle of her accomplishments, waiting for some suitor to brave it and offer her a brilliant life.
:I can't understand "sat amid the chilly circle of her accomplishments"

3. After the first year of married life Mrs Kearney perceived that such a man would wear better than a romantic person but she never put her own romantic ideas away.
: I can't get the meaning of "such a man would wear better than a romantic person". Does it literally mean he would dress up "even better" than a romantic person would?

Thanks for reading!
 

jutfrank

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1. Possibly.
2. the chilly circle is a metaphor.
3. wear better more or less means 'be better', 'suit her better', or possibly 'last longer'.
 

GoesStation

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Note that the thread's title should have been this:

Sentences from "Dubliners"

Not being very clued in to popular culture, I naively thought you were wondering about something you'd heard while visiting Dublin.
 

Tdol

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