She saw that there was a devil in him that still longed to torment her.
"That," said she, "would have been very bad for Nicky."
"Yes. But it would have been very good for you."
She had her moment of torment; then she recovered.
"I thought," said she, "that was the one thing I was not to do."
"You're not to do it seriously. But you couldn't fall in love with Nicky seriously. Could you? Could anybody?"
"Why are you so unkind to Nicky?"
"Because he's so ungovernably a man of letters."
"He isn't. He only thinks he is."
"He thinks he's Shelley, because his father's a squire."