Miss Ramsey: "Now you are insulting me! And that is just the point. You may be a very clever lawyer, Mr. Ashley, and everybody says you are—very able, and talented, and all that, but you can't get round that point. You may torture any meaning you please out of my words, but I shall always say you brought it on yourself."
Ashley: "Brought what on?"
Miss Ramsey: "Mr. Ashley! I won't be cross-questioned."
Ashley: "Was that why you smoked, and poured cocktails out of an unopened bottle? Was it because you wished me to hate you, and remember my duty, and go back to Miss Fray? Well, it was a dead failure. It made me love you more than ever. I am a fool too, as you call it."
Miss Ramsey: "Say anything you please. I have given you the right. I shall not resent it. Go on."
Ashley: "I should only repeat myself. You must have known how much I care for you, Isobel. Do you mind my calling you Isobel?"
Miss Ramsey: "Not in the least if you wish to humiliate me by it. I should like you to trample on me in every way you can."
Ashley: "Trample on you? I would rather be run over by a steam-roller than tread on the least of your outlying feelings, dearest. Do you mind my saying dearest?"
Miss Ramsey: "I have told you that you can say anything you like. I deserve it. But oh, if you have a spark of pity—"
Ashley: "I'm a perfect conflagration of compassion, darling. Do you object to darling?"