"Because she's in love with him."
"That," said Maisie, with increasing decision, "I do not believe. I've never seen any signs of it."
"You're the only person who hasn't then. It sticks out of her. If it was a secret I shouldn't have told you."
"It is a secret to me," said Maisie, "so I think you might let it alone."
"You ought to know it if nobody else does. We've all of us known about Anne for ages. She was always quite mad about Jerrold. It was funny when she was a little thing; but it's rather more serious now she's thirty."
"She isn't thirty," said Maisie, contradictiously.
"Almost thirty. It's a dangerous age, Maisie. And Anne's a dangerous person. She's absolutely reckless. She always was."
"I thought you thought she was in love with Colin."
"I never thought it."
Maisie hated people who lied to her.