I don’t care! I’d rather walk all the way to London than stay here now!’ ‘It’s an engaging thought,’ said Stephen. ‘Orphan of the Storm.

Really, I don’t know what the world is coming to if I am to be suspected of staring in at windows!

I daresay he won’t remain at the Priory above a day or two, but while he is here it will be best for you to discontinue your solitary walks,’ Edward said, with a calm assumption of authority which she found so irritating.

My dear girl, you don’t consent to an abduction! You consent to an elopement, and I knew you wouldn’t do that.

She had herself been sadly disappointed, for she had thought him a man of sense, certainly not one to be succumbing to childish ailments at inopportune moments.

The charm of your society, My Sparrow, lies in not knowing what will you say next – though one rapidly learns to fear the worst!

Lord, if we were all to marry our first loves what a plague of ill-assorted marriages there would be!

Perhaps Charis did not realize that when one had passed through a time of terrible anxiety relief did not immediately restore the tone of one’s mind. To be sure, she herself had not expected that after the first raptures she would find herself subject to fits of dejection, and much inclined to be crotchety; but still Charis should have known better than to have enacted a tragical scene within an hour of her arrival.

Mrs Patch was all that she had hoped. She was an improbable blonde of uncertain years, with a very much painted face, a singularly penetrating voice, and a laugh which made Mablethorpe wince.

It is customary, you know, to exchange polite conversation during the dance. I have now addressed no fewer than three unexceptionable remarks to you without winning one answer!