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dc75ff6
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I wish to God," said Gideon with mild exasperation, "that you'd talk--just once--in prose like other people." --
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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76708cb
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I would give you my soul in a blackberry pie; and a knife to cut it with.
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love
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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26aa5f0
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Today,' said Lymond, 'if you must know, I don't like living at all. But that's just immaturity boggling at the sad face of failure. Tomorrow I'll be bright as a bedbug again.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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195c6d2
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Repressively, Lymond himself answered. "I dislike being discussed as if I were a disease. Nobody 'got' me," he said."
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a284822
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Jerott, for God's sake! Are you doing this for a wager?' said Lymond, his patience gone at last. 'What does anyone want out of life? What kind of freak do you suppose I am? I miss books and good verse and decent talk. I miss women, to speak to, not to rape; and children, and men creating things instead of destroying them. And from the time I wake until the time I find I can't go to sleep there is the void--the bloody void where there was no..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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fe296cf
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I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8d2804a
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Man is a being of varied, manifold and inconstant nature. And woman, by God, is a match for him.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8cb5769
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The coast's a jungle of Moors, Turks, Jews, renegades from all over Europe, sitting in palaces built from the sale of Christian slaves. There are twenty thousand men, women and children in the bagnios of Algiers alone. I am not going to make it twenty thousand and one because your mother didn't allow you to keep rabbits, or whatever is at the root of your unshakable fixation." "I had weasels instead," said Philippa shortly. "Good God," said..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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0e2b3ce
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It was one of the occasions when Lymond asleep wrecked the peace of mind of more people than Lymond awake.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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4c3c58a
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Robin Stewart] was your man. True for you, you had withdrawn the crutch from his sight, but still it should have been there in your hand, ready for him. For you are a leader-don't you know it? I don't, surely, need to tell you?-And that is what leadership means. It means fortifying the fainthearted and giving them the two sides of your tongue while you are at it. It means suffering weak love and schooling it till it matures. It means giving..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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0592ebe
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I have learned,' said Lymond, 'that kindness without love is no kindness.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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194b72a
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To the men exposed to his rule Lymond never appeared ill: he was never tired; he was never worried, or pained, or disappointed, or passionately angry. If he rested, he did so alone; if he slept, he took good care to sleep apart. "--I sometimes doubt if he's human," said Will, speaking his thought aloud. "It's probably all done with wheels."
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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631d2f4
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Perfectly prepared to be an eavesdropper but unwilling to look like one, Philippa backed quickly towards the door and collided, hard, with an unseen person striding forward equally fast into the room. There was a hiss, more than echoed by herself as the breath was struck from her body. Then two cool, friendly hands held and steadied her, one on her shoulder and one on her flat waist, and a low voice said, 'Admirable Philippa. I always enter..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b378b21
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For an hour, blended with all she could offer, something noble had been created which had nothing to do with the physical world. And from the turn of his throat, the warmth of his hair, the strong, slender sinews of his hands, something further; which had. Though she combed the earth and searched through the smoke of the galaxies there was no being she wanted but this, who was not and should not be for Philippa Somerville.
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true-love
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b749860
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Versatility is one of the few human traits which are universally intolerable. You may be good at Greek and good at painting and be popular. You may be good at Greek and good at sport, and be wildly popular. But try all three and you're a mountebank. Nothing arouses suspicion quicker than genuine, all-round proficiency." Kate thought. "It needs an extra gift for human relationships, of course; but that can be developed. It's got to be, beca..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a5ac80b
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What's wrong? Has Francis been rude? Then you must try to overlook it. I know you wouldn't think so, but he is thoroughly upset by Tom Erskine's death; and when Francis is troubled he doesn't show it, he just goes and makes life wretched for somebody.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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1fbd61f
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Kate viewed him suspiciously. "I don't see why I should abandon my entertainment because of your conscience." "It isn't quite conscience so much as horrified admiration," said Lymond."
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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3375c52
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If I can't be personal, I don't want to argue," said his hostess categorically. "I may be missing your points, but you're much too busy dodging mine."
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7f47886
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So small a spirit, to lodge such sorrows as mankind has brought you. Live ... live.... Wait for me, new, frightened soul. And though the world should reel to a puny death, and the wolves are appointed our godfathers, I will not fail you, ever.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6fdede2
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And habits are hell's own substitute for good intentions. Habits are the ruin of ambition, of initiative , of imagination. They're the curse of marriage and the after-bane of death.
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imagination
habits
initiative
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f016853
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Lymond's behaviour, as always, went to the limits of polite usage and then hurtled off into space.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b995831
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Oh, well. Everyone else has suave, cosmopolitan sheep: why not us? The Millers at Hepple have a ewe that's been to Kelso three times, and they've never been farther than Ford in their lives." Kate peered absently into the farm pond, and clucked again. "Thoughtless creatures. They've forgotten the fish."
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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5373370
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It was a piece of advice only, and aimed at myself as much, I suppose, as at you.--For those of easy tongues, she said. Remember, some live all their lives without discovering this truth; that the noblest and most terrible power we possess is the power we have, each of us, over the chance-met, the stranger, the passer-by outside your life and your kin. Speak, she said, as you would write: as if your words were letters of lead, graven there ..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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26b87a9
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Depose him,' said Will Scott, astonished. 'The Grand Master's holy office terminates with his life.' 'And can nobody think of an answer to that?' said Will Scott.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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4d4c198
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Philippa Somerville, standing back a little, did not withdraw her arm. In her white face, a shadow of motherly irritation appeared. 'Has no one here any sense? Be quiet and sit down. The world will look after itself for a night, without your hand on the rim.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7270849
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You choose to play God, and the Deity points out that the post is already adequately filled. During an outburst of besotted philanthropy he had redeemed Lymond, but Lymond quite simply was not prepared to be rescued; and least of all by his brother.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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0bebfdb
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If you can repress for a moment your spinster-like longing to meddle in my affairs,' said Lymond cuttingly, from the door, 'I am waiting to go.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b9f2385
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Talk to me, Richard. It isn't difficult. Move the teeth and agitate the tongue. Tell me news of the family. Am I superseded yet? Oh, Richard, a blush!
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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cf931c7
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He regards boredom, I observe, as the One and Mighty Enemy of his soul. And will succeed in conquering it, I am sure--if he survives the experience.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a0cfff4
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It seems to me,' said Philippa prosaically, 'that on the whole we run more risks with Mr Crawford's protection than without it.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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75150f2
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And if there's no trouble, you'll make it,' offered Will Scott, his eyes bright, his cheeks red. 'No. At the moment,' affirmed Lymond grimly, 'I am having truck with nothing less than total calamity.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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484b48c
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Where are the links of the chain ... joining us to the past?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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642ad6e
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Then Lymond's voice, the chill gone, said, 'Don't be an ass, Jerott? You know I can't do without you.' It was an obvious answer. But it was also something Jerott had never had from Lymond before: an apology and an appeal both at once.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7330f37
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I prize freedom of the mind above freedom of the body.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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915ebc3
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I am telling you now that you did right with Robin Stewart and I am telling you that the error you made came later, when you took no heed of his call. It was too late then, I know it. But he should have been in your mind. He was your man. True for you, you had withdrawn the crutch from his sight, but still it should have been there in your hand, ready for him. For you are a leader--don't you know it? I don't, surely, need to tell you?--And ..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a1e8b97
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Philippa, enviously, wished she could do the same, and then decided she would rather be interesting and sensitive.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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d54711a
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My son took many years to learn the simple truth. You cannot love any one person adequately until you have made friends with the rest of the human race also. Adult love demands qualities which cannot be learned living in a vacuum of resentment.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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93a136c
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Once, long ago, Francis Crawford had reduced her to terror and, the episode over, she had suffered to find that for Kate, apparently, no reason suggested itself against making that same Francis Crawford her friend. He was not Philippa's friend. She had made that clear, and, to be fair, he had respected it. He had even, when you thought of it, curtailed his visits to Kate, although Kate's studied lack of comment on this served only to make P..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7dcb3a8
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I never expect anything,' said Marthe. 'It provides a level, low-pitched existence with no disappointments.' 'I'm all for a level, low-pitched existence,' said Philippa. 'And when you see your way back to one, for heaven's sake don't forget to tell me.' At which Marthe, surprisingly, laughed aloud.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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86c4230
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So she was on her own, Kate thought, and instilled all the friendly helpfulness she could into her next question. "Excuse me, but are you the bad company young Mr. Scott has got into?"
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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5c1046f
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I must apologize for these damned entrances,' said Francis Crawford of Lymond. 'I feel Tom here never knows if he should send for a bishop or start a round of applause.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c74ebe0
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'I'm fairly bursting tae ken how ye guessed I spoke Scots?' Lymond looked up. Superficial pain, withstood or ignored for quite a long time, had made his eyes heavy, but they were brimming with laughter. 'Well, God,' he said. 'In the water, you were roaring your head off at a bloody bull elephant called Hughie.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c49c1fc
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Go away and bleed to death,' said his onetime saviour sharply. 'On behalf of the female sex I feel I may cheer every lesion.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7a87996
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Did I ever tell you,' said Lymond pausing on the afterthought, on his way to the flap, 'that that aunt of mine once hatched an egg?' He paused, deep in thought, and walked slowly to the door before turning again. His lordship of Aubigny, staring after the vanishing form of his brother, received the full splendour of Lymond's smile. 'It was a cuckoo,' said Francis Crawford prosaically, and followed Lennox out.
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Dorothy Dunnett |