She had an infant daughter, Erika, from a brief, ill-fated marriage but no career aspirations.

She launched into the story of her ill-fated first marriage, stopping every now and then to wipe her eyes or give him a rueful smile.

She waves the picture away with the back of her hand: "My ill-fated marriage."

If only he had not tried to force her into that awful, ill-fated marriage with Hans.

There were two sons of that ill-fated marriage," he went on after a pause, "boys at the time of their parents' death.

The attachment between them led to the ill-fated marriage, of which I was the offspring.

- "May the heavens fall upon me before such an ill-fated marriage can be solemnized!"

Things get worse as the children of those "ill-fated marriages" first fight among themselves and then give themselves up to riotous self-indulgence.

After his military service, he makes an ill-fated marriage to the daughter of one of his father's classmates and takes up a career in investment banking.

Two months into her ill-fated marriage, Charlotte joined her father's company, quickly developing a reputation for "breeches parts."