"Six years ago I was nursing a doll, Captain Ponsonby."
"Even so. You tease your dolls in youth, and tease our hearts in age. Like a falling star, you have shot from your sphere, upon the banks of this lake, and where shall you make your rest?"
"You have been some time in Ireland, Captain Ponsonby, and have caught the true hyperbole."
"I had no practice there, Miss Wetheral. If I told a lady she was charming, it was 'ah now, you're joking'—and if I advanced with classical allusions, or sparkling metaphor, it was 'ah now, Captain Ponsonby, you're so droll!'"
"The Irish ladies possibly guessed your character, Captain Ponsonby, as it appears to have been a general answer. They knew you were either in jest, or sarcastic."
"Upon my honour, you are wrong. I am sincere in word and deed. I am neither fair nor false, the motto of some of my neighbours. Don't look this way, Farnborough."
"Miss Wetheral," said his lordship, "do not believe half you hear from Ponsonby's lips."
"It hit my lord hard, you perceive, Miss Wetheral."
"My friend Ponsonby is a rover—sans eyes, sans heart, sans every thing, Miss Wetheral."