They waged wordy warfare, she attacking, he defending.

Anne once reproached the Captain for his baiting of Miss Cornelia.
"Oh, I do love to set her going, Mistress Blythe," chuckled the unrepentant sinner.

"It's the greatest amusement I have in life.

That tongue of hers would blister a stone.

And you and that young dog of a doctor enj'y listening to her as much as I do." Captain Jim came along another evening to bring Anne some mayflowers.
The garden was full of the moist, scented air of a maritime spring evening.