No, cousin …
‘No, cousin …’ The denial, she realized, could apply either to his last sentence or to what she knew would follow. Which had she meant herself? She was not quite sure. She tried again to...
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It is your name which is written down for the next dance, not his
‘I am fully engaged.’ He took the card from her and studied it for a moment in silence. Then he said: ‘The next is a mazurka. That will do capitally.’ She said, trying to be...
I have no thought of being rich
‘Beauty such as yours, my dear Sarnia, has power. But none of these is one tenth as powerful as money. The evidence is undeniable.’ ‘But I deny it. Money only has power insofar as men...
The train departs
The guard’s whistle was blown and the engine chuffed into life. The train moved out of the station’s gloom into the brighter ambience of the city’s dusk. Overhead the sky was deep, almost violet blue;...
All men have their faults
She spoke confidingly to Sarnia. ‘I suppose all men have their faults, but I would rather have extravagance than meanness.’ ‘I perfectly agree,’ Sarnia said. ‘Meanness and coldness – they are much the same thing...
Departure time
The evening of a clear summer day was darkening when the carriage conveyed them into Vauxhall station. The gas jets flared high up but were little needed still; even under the shadow of the platform...
A prodigious amount of walking
‘We seem to do a prodigious amount of walking in London,’ he observed. ‘Do you not walk much in Guernsey, then?’ Sarnia asked. ‘That we do,’ he chuckled. ‘And climb as well. Our town is...
In him beauty and power went hand in hand
His mind went back again to that first encounter; to himself, a boy, looking down from the boat-house window on to those four, those sunflower heads. Then and later he had found unreasonable beauty in...
In a few hours he would be back in his real home
On the opposite side of the road, where the long rows of glass roofs of the Pinker Nurseries had caught the sun, a housing estate was in process of being built. He had lost a...
Too late
He thought he smelled gas on the first flight of stairs, although of course that was ridiculous. But the smell was quite plain when he got into the flat. As he came up the staircase...