After a moment, he added more seriously: 'I don't get as angry as m'father used to about things. Or maybe I', just better at hiding m'feelings.'' I fear I'm not very good at hiding my feelings.' He covered my hand with his own. 'That's what I like about you. I liked it from the first. You're so different from the others.

— Jennifer Paynter

At that moment a solitary violin struck up. But the music was not dance music; it was more like a song - a solemn, sweet song. (I know now that it was Beethoven's Romance in F.) I listened, and suddenly it was as if the fog that surrounded me had been penetrated, as if I were being spoken to.

— Jennifer Paynter

Blessed with the love of a good man, I felt equal to anything - even the prospect of living out my days in the Antipodes.

— Jennifer Paynter

But look behind you, Mary.' She nodded towards the dais. 'One of the musicians seems to be trying to attract your attention.' It was Peter. He was standing on the dais smiling across at me. My delight at seeing him was such that I could not disguise it - did not try to disguise it.

— Jennifer Paynter

Hello, Mary.' It was like hearing a note of divine calm after a dissonant passage of music. My confusion died away.

— Jennifer Paynter

I did not have an opportunity to speak privately with Peter until just as he was leaving, when he handed me one of the Burns song-sheets and (with a most earnest look) told me to read it before I went to bed. The song was 'My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose,' but it was not until was up in my bedchamber that I saw he had written on the inside page: 'My mother would be honored if you visited her after church tomorrow.

— Jennifer Paynter

I found I could listen without envy to Letty's singing, and afterward when the applause came, I did not mind that Mrs Knowles was heaping praises upon her. Peter's hands were on my chair, and when I leaned back I could feel them against my shoulders.

— Jennifer Paynter

I had not the least idea of a gamekeeper's occupation being so dangerous - there had never been such a person employed on the Longhorn estate - and just as I had spent half the previous night wondering about Peter, I spent half the next one worrying about him.

— Jennifer Paynter

I knew it was Peter playing. I fancied he was trying to tell me something - an absurd idea, but it persisted - 'I may not be able to spell, but just you listen to this.

— Jennifer Paynter

In suiting the action to the words, however, I perceived that the stars were all wrong. That was my undoing. I had looked up unthinkingly, anticipating the familiar, and, finding it gone, began to cry like a baby. Whereupon Peter stopped the gig and took me in his arms, kissing me so that my face was soon sore both from kissing and crying.

— Jennifer Paynter