"The idea surprises you! You are struck by it, eh?"
"De Rothan, I have had enough of this monstrous fooling."
"Will it be fooling if I marry your daughter?"
"Sir?"
"Save your emotions."
"You think you can marry Nance!"
"There are three reasons why I should marry her. Because I desire to, because she does not desire me to, and because Mr. Jasper Benham will be struck across the face. Motives indeed! Our motives in life are curiously complex. I love complexities, entanglements, quarrels. Am I a man for a tame hare? Psst! Durrell, if a woman provokes me I like her all the better."
Durrell stared at him in impotent indignation.
"You are beyond me, De Rothan, and yet not beyond me."
"Indeed, I should not have to go far! What time is it? I think I shall have to request you to be locked up in your room."