"She's very handsome."
"Yes, Anne. But it isn't a nice face. Now, is it?"
Anne couldn't say it was a nice face.
"It's awful to think of Colin being married to it. He's only twenty-one now, and she's seven years older. If it had been anybody but Colin. If it had been Eliot or Jerrold I shouldn't have minded so much. They can look after themselves. He'll never stand up against that horrible girl."
"She does look terribly strong."
"And cruel, Anne, as if she might hurt him. I don't want him to be hurt. I can't bear her taking him away from me. My little Col-Col….I did hope, Anne, that if you wouldn't have Eliot—"
"I'd have Colin? But Auntie, I'm years older than he is. He's a baby."
"If he's a baby he'll want somebody older to look after him."
"Queenie's even better fitted than I am, then."
"Do you think, Anne, she proposed to Colin?"