The Clever Woman of the Family quotes

“My age—five and twenty,” returned Rachel. “Well I shall go and ask about the house. Remember, mother, this influx is to bring no trouble or care on you; Fanny Temple is my charge from henceforth.

My mission has come to seek me,

” she added as she quitted the room, in eager excitement of affection, emotion, and importance, for Fanny had been more like a sister than a cousin.

“

Nerves are merely a matter of training.

Think of the numbers that might be removed from the responsibility of incompetently educating! I declare that to tempt a person into the office of governess, instead of opening a new field to her, is the most shortsighted indolence.”

Then I have the tamarisk and its inhabitants. There has been a tomtit’s nest every year since we came, and that provides us with infinite amusement. Besides the seagulls are often so good as to float high enough for me to see them.

There is a wonderful charm in a circumcribed view, because one is obliged to look well into it all.

”

It was new to Rachel to find the mention of a general principle received neither with a stare nor a laugh; and she gathered herself up to answer, “

Naming and collecting is not science.

”

“

And masonry is not architecture, but you can’t have architecture without it.

”

But it was hard that where Rachel really liked and met halfway, the intimate confidence should always be bestowed upon Grace, or even the mother.

She had yet to learn that the way to draw out a snail is not to grasp its horns, and that halfway meeting is not to launch one’s self to the opposite starting point.

Either her inquiries were too point blank to invite detailed replies, or her own communications absorbed her too much to leave room for a return.

Others are always wanting something; she never is. Every enjoyment seems to be tenfold to her what it is to other people; she sees the hopeful side of every sorrow.

No burden is a burden when one has carried it to her.

”

“

I was thinking, Rose, what a difficult language plain English is sometimes.

”

“It was my own that I meant,” said Ermine. “

But, Rose, always remember that a person who stands plain speaking from one like me has something very noble and generous in her.

Were you here all the time, Rosie? I don’t wonder you were tired.”

“

Violetta looked at me all the time, and Augustus gave three winks, so I think he liked it.

”

“

Only little boys have Christian names!

” they returned, and Alison was forced to do her best to tame herself and them to the duties of the long day of anticipation so joyous on their part, so full of confusion and bewildered anxiety on her own.

“What; her dying an old maid?” said Colonel Keith. “I am not sure.

Wholesale exportations of wives are spoiling the market.

”

“

Nothing! nothing about Edward?

”

We had just had time to tell what we most wanted to know, and I know a little more of what he is. I feel as if it were not only Colin again, but ten times Colin.

O Ailie, it must be a little bit like the meetings in heaven!

”

“Half divine in the esteem of a people who thought brute courage godlike. To us the word maintains its semi-divinity, and it should be our effort to associate it only with that which veritably has the godlike stamp.”

“Doing more than one’s duty,” exclaimed Rachel, with a glistening eye.

“Very uncomfortable and superfluous, and not at all easy,” he said, half shutting his already heavy eyes.

“Doing more than one’s duty,” exclaimed Rachel, with a glistening eye.

“Very uncomfortable and superfluous, and not at all easy,” he said, half shutting his already heavy eyes.

“Easy, no, that’s the beauty and the glory—”

“Not always, for the simple manner that goes with real superiority is generally very attractive. The larger and deeper the mind, the more there would be of the genuine humbleness and gentleness that a shallow nature is incapable of.

The very word humility presupposes depth.

”

“I am aware,” said Lord Keith, rising as if to go, “that I have trespassed long on your time, and made a suggestion only warranted by the generosity with which you have hitherto acted.”

“One may be generous of one’s own, not of other people’s,” said Ermine.

He looked at her puzzled, then said, “Perhaps it will be best to speak categorically, Miss Williams. Let it be distinctly understood that my brother Colin, in paying his addresses to you, is necessarily without my sanction or future assistance.”

“Will you allow me a seat?” asked Captain Keith, when he had disposed of his sister’s goods; and on Rachel’s assent, he placed himself on the back seat in his lazy manner.

“If you were good for anything, you would sit outside and smoke,” said his sister.

“If privacy is required for swearing an eternal friendship, I can go to sleep instead,” he returned, closing his eyes.

“If privacy is required for swearing an eternal friendship, I can go to sleep instead,” he returned, closing his eyes.

“Quite the reverse,” quoth Bessie Keith; “he has prepared me to hate you all, Miss Curtis.”

“On the mutual aversion principle,” murmured the brother.

“Do you! A contrary persuasion sustains me when I see people obnoxiously sage to their fellow-creatures.”

“Obnoxious sageness in youth is the token that there is stuff behind,”

said Alick, with eagerness that set his sister laughing at him for fitting on the cap;

“Woman’s mission discovered,” quoth her brother.

“Also man’s, unless he neglects it,” returned Miss Elizabeth; “I wonder, now, if you would play if Miss Curtis did.”

“Wisdom never pledges itself how it will act in hypothetical circumstances,” was the reply.

“Also man’s, unless he neglects it,” returned Miss Elizabeth; “I wonder, now, if you would play if Miss Curtis did.”

“Wisdom never pledges itself how it will act in hypothetical circumstances,” was the reply.

“Hypothetical,” syllabically repeated Bessie Keith; “did you teach him that word, Miss Curtis? Well, if I don’t bring about the hypothetical circumstances, you may call me hyperbolical.”

“And after all,” added Rachel, “we have no notion whether this poor man be not precisely of your own opinions, and from their fruits I am sure you ought to claim them.”

“Their blossoms if you please,” laughed Ermine. “We have not seen their fruits yet.”

“And I shall take care the fruits are not nipped with the blight of suspicion,” said Rachel, good-humouredly.

In answer to a few sympathising words on the haste of his brother’s proceeding, she burst out again with indignation almost amusing in one so soft—

“Haste! Yes! I did think that people would have had some respect for dear, dear Sir Stephen,”

and her gush of tears came with more of grief and less of violence, as if she for the first time felt herself unprotected by her husband’s name.

“No, the contrary reason; but I cannot understand why you let me go on without telling me.”

“I never interfere when a story is so perfect in itself.”

“But is my story perfect in itself?” said Rachel, “or is it the contrary?”

“Ah! your sister said you had the greatest dislike to hero worship.”

“A natural sense of humbug,” he said.

“I don’t know why they gave me this,” he added, touching his cross, “unless it was that one of the party in the bungalow had a turn for glorifying whatever happened to himself.

“Yes; for those that like to laugh, but not for those that are laughed at,” said Rachel.

“More so; the worst of all misfortunes is to wriggle too smoothly through life.”

This was to Rachel the most remarkable part of the evening; as to the rest, it was like all other balls, a weariness: Grace enjoying herself and her universal popularity, always either talking or dancing, and her mother comfortable and dutiful among other mothers;

and left her cousin unmolested in her satisfaction, having long relegated Fanny to the class of women who think having a friend about to be married the next best thing to being married themselves, no matter to whom.

“Aspirations in women are mere delusions,” was her compensating sigh to Grace.

“There is no truer saying, than that a woman will receive every man.”

… Captain Keith, when I told him his own story, and denied his being the hero, till I actually saw his cross,” and she spoke with a genuine simplicity that almost looked like humour, ending with, “I wonder why I am fated to make such mistakes!”

“Preconceived notions,” said Ermine, smiling; “your theory suffices you, and you don’t see small indications.”

“There may be something in that,” said Rachel, thoughtfully, “it accounts for Grace always seeing things faster than I did.”

… see,” said Rachel, perplexed and grievously wanting time to rally her forces, “I cannot but feel that I have trusted too easily, and perhaps been to blame myself for my implicit confidence, and after that it revolts me to throw the whole blame on another.”

“If you have been a simpleton, does that make him an honest man?” said Mr. Grey, impatiently.

“My credulity may have caused his dishonesty,” she said, bringing, at last, the words to serve the idea.

It will almost kill that dear young mother to see it. No, they cannot be left; but oh, Ermine, it is like choosing between you and them.”

“Not at all, it is choosing between right and wrong.”

“And Ermine, if—if I should be ill, you must not think of coming near me. Rose must not be left alone.”

“It was well thought of by Colin.”

“Colin is a lawyer spoilt⁠—that’s a fact. A first-rate getup of a case!”

“And you think it safe now?”

… I must necessarily do, from our former relations, you must let me speak if there is still time to warn you, lest your pity and sense of injustice should be entangling you in a connection that would hardly conduce to make you happy or popular.”

“Popularity is not my line,” said Alick, looking composedly into the fire.

“Tell me first,” said the puzzled Colonel, “are you committed?”

“I do believe—I do wish to believe; but my grasp seems gone. I cannot rest or trust for thinking of the questions that have been raised! There,” she added in a strange interrogative tone.

“It is a cruel thing to represent doubt as the sign of intellect,”

Alick said sadly; “but you will shake off the tormentors when the power of thinking and reasoning is come back.”

“If you don’t think we ought to see it.”

“Ought?” he said, smiling. “What is the ought in the case? Why are we going through all this? Is it a duty to society or to ourselves?”

“A little of both, I suppose,” said Rachel.

Rachel said no more, but when she was gone upstairs Mr. Clare detained his nephew to say, “I beg your pardon, Alick, but you should be quite sure that your wife likes this proposal.”

“That’s the value of a strong-minded wife, sir,” returned Alick; “she is not given to making a fuss about small matters.”

“Most ladies might not think this a small matter.”

“I apprehended the consequences,” said Alick, “and besides, you never mounted that black lace pall, or curtain, or whatever you call it, upon your head, after your first attempt at frightening me away with it.”

“A cap set against, instead of at,” said Mr. Clare, laughing

; and therewith his old horse was heard clattering in the yard, and Alick proceeded to drive the well-used phaeton about three miles through Earlsworthy Park, to a pleasant-looking demesne in the village beyond.

“I cannot tell—perhaps not. Whenever I get a book with anything in it, somebody says it is not sound.”

“And you therefore conclude that a sound book can have nothing in it?” he asked, smiling.

“Well, most of the new ‘sound’ books that I have met are just what my mother and sister like—either dull, or sentimental and trashy.”

Now, if you will help me with the book work, it will be very kind in you, and might serve to clear your mind about some of the details, though you must be prepared for some questions being unanswered.”

“Best so,” replied Rachel, “I don’t like small answers to great questions.”

“Nor I. Only let us take care not to get absorbed in admiring the boldness that picks out stones to be stumbled over.”

The Colonel could almost have said, “Better such foolishness than such wisdom, such repulsion than such attraction.” He was much struck by Rachel’s distress, and the absence of all female spite and triumph, made him understand Ermine’s defence of her as really large-minded and generous.

“It is a very sad moment to be undeceived,” he said; “one would rather have one’s faults come to light in one’s life than afterwards.”

They were simple words, so simple that the terrible truth with which they were connected, did not come upon Rachel at the first moment;

If he winced he did not show it.

“My proper feeling takes the direction of my wife,” he said.

“You don’t really mean to forbid me to go,” she exclaimed.

“But is it not very troublesome to you?”

“It is a capital lark!” said Mr. Clare, with a zest that only the slang word could imply, removing all Rachel’s scruples

, and in effect Mr. Clare did enjoy the spice of adventure in a most amusing way.

“I suppose your expectations are not high in the matter of finery,” said Ermine, with a certain archness of voice.

“Those eyes are all the finery I ever see.”

“Then if you will not be scandalized at my natural Sunday dress, I don’t see why this day week should not do as well as any other time.”

“Then if you will not be scandalized at my natural Sunday dress, I don’t see why this day week should not do as well as any other time.”

“Ermine, you are the only woman I ever met totally free from nonsense.”

“Take care, it is very unfeminine and disagreeable to be devoid of nonsense.”

“Ermine, you are the only woman I ever met totally free from nonsense.”

“Take care, it is very unfeminine and disagreeable to be devoid of nonsense.”

“Very, and therefore you are talking it now! Ermine, how shall I thank you? Not only for the sake of the ease of mind to my poor brother; but in the scenes we are going through, a drop of happiness is wanted as a stimulant.