"And what about the passionate?" he asked, "since you're making excuses for me.
"I don't know anything about it."
"Well, what about my being strong then?"
"I don't like men unless they are."
"And the cruelty?"
"I hate it."
"Life sometimes combines to make people cruel who otherwise might not be," he remarked, as if unaccustomed to finding excuses for himself. "You can't judge a person fairly until you know all that has gone to form their character."
Pansy patted her gaunt steed.
"I know that," she said, "that's why I stuck to 'The Sultan' when my friends tried to persuade me to have him shot. There's a lot in his life that I don't know. These marks tell me that."
She pointed to the various old scars on the animal.