Is Matthew still caring for Spitfire, or has my father sold her ?" Then followed the line: "Give my father my respectful regards; I would send my love, but he no longer cares for it." The dear lady did not deliver the message.

Indeed Harry's departure had so widened the breach between the colonel and herself that they practically occupied different parts of the house as far removed from each other as possible.

She had denounced him first to his face for the boy's self-imposed exile, and again behind his back to her intimates.
Nor did her resolve waver even when the colonel was thrown from his horse and so badly hurt that his eyesight was greatly impaired.

"It is a judgment on you," she had said, drawing her frail body up to its full height.

"You will now learn what other people suffer," and would have kept on upstairs to her own room had not her heart softened at his helplessness--a new role for the colonel.
He had made no answer at the time: he never answered her back.