quotes_nov11_2007.htm

‘All the land was empty except for themselves, and at last (they were sitting by the lamp-post hand in hand) she turned and kissed him. He woke with a start, staring at the waving curtain of the cabin door; he could almost have sworn that the kiss was real’.

This is from “The Brushwood Boy” in The Day’s Work. George Cottar, a brilliant young officer, has had a secret dream life since childhood, in which he and a girl have travelled through a strange elaborate landscape. In his waking life he has had little to do with women. Here he is waking up from the dream, on a voyage back to England, on which an older woman has fallen in love with him, and kissed him while he slept. Later at home, he meets the girl of the dream in real life, and they fall into each others’ arms.

… “Little woman …do you care for me ?”…
“Do you want an honest answer ?”
“Ye-es. I’ve asked for it.”
Mrs Boulte spoke in a low, even voice for five minutes, very distinctly, that there might be no misunderstanding her meaning. When Samson broke the pillars of Gaza, he did a little thing, and one not to be compared to the deliberate pulling down of a woman’s homestead about her own ears…She struck at Boulte’s heart, because her own was sick with suspicion…

This is from “A Wayside Comedy” in Wee Willie Winkie, a tale of a small remote station where a small group of British people cannot avoid each other’s company.

Mrs Boulte has fallen in love with Kurrell, but both Kurrell and Mrs Boulte’s husband have now fallen for a newcomer to the station, Mrs Vansuythen. There is no escape from the hell that the lovers and would-be lovers have created for themselves.

“Jack ! Jack, darling !” (there was no mistake about the words this time: they rang through my brain as if they had been shouted in my ear.) “It’s some hideous mistake I’m sure. forgive me Jack, and let’s be friends again”…

This is from “The Phantom Rickshaw” in Wee Willie Winkie. Jack Pansay has had a love affair with Agnes Keith-Wessington, but has thrown her over, and Agnes has died in despair. But out with Kitty, his new fiancée, he encounters the ghost of Agnes, in her characteristic yellow-panelled ‘rickshaw, pleading with him to have her back. Kitty breaks off the engagement. Guilty and terrified, he continues to be haunted by Agnes, and his life is ruined.