"I feel sorry for the poor old thing," said Sir Anthony, with a half-ashamed laugh, "because she was crossed in love. I shouldn't like to be crossed in love myself, Pamela."
"It was cruel," said Pamela simply. "The man made her love him, and then went away and never came back. She was poor then. She inherited Dovercourt quite unexpectedly."
"What a sweep he must have been!"
"Come along, Trevithick," he cried, rushing away.
"Poor Miss Spencer always thinks he will come back, though people say he married abroad and died there. I tell you all this so that you won't be the least bit in the world inclined to laugh when you see her. I daresay it's funny enough to see a pink silk coal-scuttle bonnet on top of a grey head; but then, you know, you don't feel like laughing."
"No, indeed, darling."
"Sylvia says it's made a man-hater of her. That's how she excuses herself for treating her admirers so outrageously."
"I'd have fallen in love with Sylvia myself, only for you, Pamela."