I thought I heard you—one of you—saying it was a pity—umph—a pity I never had—any children … eh? … But I have, you know … I have … The others smiled without answering, and after a pause Chips began a...
I often think that the Romans were fortunate; their civilization reached as far as hot baths without touching the fatal knowledge of machinery.
For Chips, like some old sea captain, still measured time by the signals of the past. . . .
But that was not all. He foresaw a time when men, exultant in the technique of homicide, would rage so hotly over the world that every precious thing would be in danger, every book and picture and har...
Brookfield will never forget his lovableness, said Cartwright, in a speech to the School. Which was absurd, because all things are forgotten in the end.
Aunt Viney (short for ’Lavinia’), viewed in the grey daylight that came in through the dining-room window, was always a rather imposing spectacle. She was fifty-one years of age, and had large staring...
Without thought or knowledge, one could have guessed that this bleak world was mountain-high, and that the mountains rising from it were mountains on top of mountains. A range of them gleamed on a far...
There was also in his nature a trait which some people might have called laziness, though it was not quite that. No one was capable of harder work, when it had to be done, and few could better shoulde...
The will of God or the lunacy of man—it seemed to him that you could take your choice, if you wanted a good enough reason for most things.
The right mixture of caring and not caring - I suppose that's what love is.
On the night before the wedding, when Chips left the house to return to his hotel, she said, with mock gravity: This is an occasion, you know--this last farewell of ours. I feel rather like a new boy...
I remember Mrs. Brool, whose photograph is still in the tuckshop; she served there until an uncle in Australia left her a lot of money. In fact, I remember so much that I often think I ought to write...
He was surprised to find that beyond his puzzlement he had few misgivings, and none at all on his own behalf. There were moments in life when one opened wide one’s soul just as one might open wide one...
For the first time in his life he felt necessary—and necessary to something that was nearest his heart. There is no sublimer feeling in the world, and it was his at last.
CIGARS HAD BURNED LOW, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves with less in common than they had bel...
Barnard caught the word. Comfortable? he echoed raucously. Why, of course we’re comfortable. We’re just enjoying the trip. Pity we haven’t a pack of cards—we could play a rubber of bridge. Conway welc...
And sometimes, when the bell rang for call-over, he would go to the window and look across the road and over the School fence and see, in the distance, the thin line of boys filing past the bench. New...
What most observers failed to perceive in him was something quite bafflingly simple—a love of quietness, contemplation, and being alone.
One had to breathe consciously and deliberately, which, though disconcerting at first, induced after a time an almost ecstatic tranquility of mind. The whole body moved in a single rhythm of breathing...
Conway answered: As good a word as most, no doubt. I don’t know whether you classify the people who come here, but if so, you can label me ‘1914-18.’ That makes me, I should think, a unique specimen i...