MISS REED: "It's not that I care for him" -

MISS SPAULDING: "Why, of course."

MISS REED: "For I don't in the least. He is horrid every way:
blunt, and rude, and horrid. I never cared for him. But I care for
myself! He has put me in the position of having done an unkind
thing--an unladylike thing--when I was only doing what I had to do.
Why need he have taken it the way he did? Why couldn't he have said
politely that he couldn't accept the money because he hadn't earned
it? Even THAT would have been mortifying enough. But he must go and
be so violent, and rush off, and--Oh, I never could have treated
anybody so!"

MISS SPAULDING: "Not unless you were very fond of them."

MISS REED: "What?"

MISS SPAULDING: "Not unless you were very fond of them."

MISS REED, putting away her handkerchief: "Oh, nonsense, Nettie! He
never cared anything for me, or he couldn't have acted so. But no
matter for that. He has fixed everything so that it can never be got
straight--never in the world. It will just have to remain a hideous
mass of--of--_I_ don't know what; and I have simply got to on
withering with despair at the point where I left off. But I don't
care! That's one comfort."

MISS SPAULDING: "I don't believe he'll let you wither long, Ethel."