He owned to himself that though Heathcote was a pig-headed ass, the ladies were very nice, and he thought that the pig-headed ass in choosing one of them for himself had by no means taken the nicest.
"You'll never find your way back," said Kate, "if you've not been here before." "I never was here before, and I suppose I must find my way back." Then he was urged to come on and dine at Gangoil, with a promise that Jacko should return with him in the evening.

But this he would not do.

Heathcote was a pig-headed ass, who possibly regarded him as an incendiary simply because he had bought some land.

This boy of Heathcote's, whose services had been offered to him, had not scrupled to tell him to his face that he was to be regarded as an enemy.

Much as he liked the company of Kate Daly, he could not go to the house of that stupid, arrogant, pig-headed young squatter.