What a time she was talking to the other man! He would not bear it! And Sabine, while she apparently listened to her neighbor, had not the remotest idea of what he said.

The whole of her being was thrilling with some strange and powerful emotion, which almost made her feel faint--she could not have swallowed a morsel of food, and simply played with her fork.
At the first possible pause, Michael addressed her again: "Since you knew the lady in life who is now my ghost--and she told you of Binko--did she not say anything else about her visit to Arranstoun or its master ?" "Nothing--it was all apparently a blank horror, and she probably wanted to forget it and him." "He made some kind of an impression upon her, then--good or bad, since she wanted to forget him--" eagerly.
Sabine admitted to herself that the umpires might have called "_touche_" for this.
"It would seem so," she allowed, with what she thought was generosity.
"That is better than only creating indifference." "Yes--the indifference came later." "One expected that; but there was a time, you have inferred, when she felt something.

What was it?
Can't you tell me ?" Excitement was rising high now in both of them, and the grouse on their plates remained almost untasted.
"At first, she did not know herself, I think; but afterwards, when she came to understand things, she felt resentment and hate, and it taught her to appreciate chivalry and gentleness." Michael almost cried "_touche_!" aloud.
"He was an awful brute--the owner of Arranstoun, I suppose ?" "Yes--apparently--and one who broke a contract and rather glorified in the fact." Michael laughed a little bitterly, as he answered: "All men are brutes when the moment favors them, and when a woman is sufficiently attractive.

We will admit that the owner of Arranstoun was a brute." "He was a man who, I understand, lived only for himself and for his personal gratification," Mrs.Howard told him.
"Poor devil! He perhaps had not had much chance.

You should be charitable!" Sabine shrugged her shoulders in that engaging way she had.