quotes_sep16_2012.htm

That night … they ate wild sheep roasted on the hot stones, and flavoured with wild garlic and wild pepper; and wild duck stuffed with wild rice and wild fenugreek and wild coriander; and marrow-bones of wild oxen; and wild cherries, and wild grenadillas. Then the Man went to sleep in front of the fire ever so happy; but the Woman sat up, combing her hair.

This is from “The Cat that Walked by Himself” in Just So Stories.

The Woman, in her tidy cave, has tamed the wildness of the Man. and will soon tame three other wild things, the Dog. the Cow and the Horse. However, she cannot tame the Cat, who makes his own treaty with her, but continues to be the Cat that Walks by Himself, wild and untamed.

… “Damnation to all neutrals!”’ Maddingham went on.

‘Amen! Amen!’ they answered between gulps that heralded the sole à la Colbert. Maddingham picked up the menu. ‘Suprême of chicken,’ he read loudly. ‘Filet béarnaise, Woodcock and Richebourg ’74, Pêches Melba, Croûtes Baron. I couldn’t have improved on it myself; though one might,’ he went on—‘one might have substituted quail en casserole for the woodcock.’

This is from the opening of “Sea Constables” in Debits and Credits.

During the Great War, four naval officers, on brief shore leave from their dangerous blockade duties in home waters, are enjoying a splendid dinner. They reminisce about an encounter with an American ‘Neutral’, whom they ruthlessly prevent from taking his cargo of fuel oil to Germany.

I had been out of England for awhile, missing several dinners, but was able to attend a summer one with none present but ourselves; several red mullets in paper; a few green peas and ducklings; an arrangement of cockscombs with olives, and capers as large as cherries; strawberries and cream; some 1903 Chateau la Tour; and that locked cabinet of cigars to which only Burges has the key.

This is from the opening paragraph of “Fairy-kist” in Limits and Renewals.

A group of friends, including the narrator, are chatting together after an ample dinner. The talk turns to detective stories, and one of them recounts a strange tale, a mystery within a mystery, finally unravelled through recollections of the War.