Driven to Bay, Volume II by Florence Marryat

Alice flew into the saloon, with her eyes brimful of tears, and the first person she encountered was Captain Lovell, who regarded her with looks of the utmost concern. He was a handsome man, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, of about thirty, the sort of man to catch the fancy of a woman who loved her lover's face before his spirit, but there was no soul in the expression of his face, and no sentiment in his disposition. Any other girl would probably have done as well for him as Alice Leyton, had he been thrown in her society for several weeks consecutively, but on the other hand Alice would do as well for him as any other woman, and was happily of a temperament that would never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. At present, she thought Robert Lovell delightful. He never corrected her, as Jack too often did. He was never _distrait_ when she chattered to him, or wrapped in his own thoughts. He never gazed dreamily at the stars, or made remarks that were utterly beyond her comprehension. And so she quite imagined she was in love, and so, perhaps, she was. As Captain Lovell saw her tear-stained cheeks, he begged her confidence.

‘What is the matter, Miss Leyton? Has any one dared to annoy you?'