Mallard hopes so, in the long time we shall have to wait." She fixed startled eyes on him.
"He cannot wish me so ill--he cannot! That would be unlike him." "He wishes _you_ no ill, be sure of it." "Oh, you haven't spoken to him as you should! You haven't made him understand you.

Let me speak to him for you." "Cecily." "Dearest ?" "Suppose he doesn't wish to understand me.

Have you never thought, when he has pretended to treat you as a child, that there might be some reason for it?
Did it never occur to you that, if he spoke too roughly, it might be because he was afraid of being too gentle ?" "Never! That thought has never approached my mind.

You don't speak in earnest ?" Why could he not command his tongue?
Why have suggested this to her imagination?
He did not wholly mean to say it, even to the last moment; but unwisdom, as so often, overcame him.

It was a way of defending himself; he wished to imply that Mallard had a powerful reason for assailing his character.