Quotation from: Villette

Written by: Charlotte Bronte

"Friend, forsooth!" thought I to myself: but it would not do to
contradict; he must have his own way; I must own the soft impeachment:
friend let it be. Still, by way of experiment, I could not help asking
whom he meant?

He had taken a seat at my work-table; he now laid hands on a reel of
thread which he proceeded recklessly to unwind.