But now, as then, it is no more than a simulation, a pretence of something that you are not." He left her in a pet, and went in search of Gregory, into whose ear he poured the story of his woes that had their source in Cynthia's unkindness.

From this resulted a stormy interview 'twixt Cynthia and her father, in which Cynthia at last declared that she would not be wedded to a fop.
Gregory shrugged his shoulders and laughed cynically, replying that it was the way of young men to be fools, and that through folly lay the road to wisdom.
"Be that as it may," she answered him with spirit, "this folly transcends all bounds.

Master Stewart may return to his Scottish heather; at Castle Marleigh he is wasting time." "Cynthia!" he cried.
"Father," she pleaded, "why be angry?
You would not have me marry against the inclinations of my heart?
You would not have me wedded to a man whom I despise ?" "By what right do you despise him ?" he demanded, his brow dark.
"By the right of the freedom of my thoughts--the only freedom that a woman knows.

For the rest it seems she is but a chattel; of no more consideration to a man than his ox or his ass with which the Scriptures rank her--a thing to be given or taken, bought or sold, as others shall decree." "Child, child, what know you of these things ?" he cried.

"You are overwrought, sweetheart." And with the promise to wait until a calmer frame of mind in her should be more propitious to what he wished to say further on this score, he left her.
She went out of doors in quest of solitude among the naked trees of the park; instead she found Sir Crispin, seated deep in thought upon a fallen trunk.
Through the trees she espied him as she approached, whilst the rustle of her gown announced to him her coming.