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dfa39cc
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Like the narration of those who preach to those who do not wish to hear, my story has failed to excite anyone. They don't believe me.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7e4bc47
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She's got sense, that girl; and too much backbone to push herself where she's not wanted. Tell her it's no good, and she'll soon see the point.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a3f3bbc
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Then,' Richard said, 'I think we accept your scheme, with one important change in it. You, too, must be watched and followed.' 'And slept with?' Lymond said.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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fa8d86d
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So who would do all this?' 'I should,' Richard said. 'Even to sleeping in your own chamber.' 'That I baulk at,' Lymond said. 'The rest you can have. One cock per pen is enough.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7cc5afb
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Dear God,' Richard said, and stood up. 'Can you not dispense with a bawd between Thursday and Monday?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8b432f5
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If I had killed you, none of this would have happened.' 'I thought you would realize it sooner or later,' Lymond said.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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ae87296
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I wonder if there exists any other man, even at this Court, who has to be restrained day and night to preserve a girl's honour?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6c71350
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There he goes. What do you think he will do?' 'What you want him to do,' Adam said dryly. 'Doesn't he always?' 'No,' Lymond said.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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566ca5f
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Does anyone--Jerott?--know a nice clean strumpet who doesn't have the pox and will sleep in my room tonight to discourage Richard? She needn't stay beyond half an hour, and I don't want to meet her.' 'And that's a bloody waste,' said Jerott belligerently. 'And it's going to stay a bloody waste,' said Lymond tartly. 'I want a little privacy, not to work up a joint reputation as Hophni and Phinehas.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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693b410
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I showed you your face in the mirror. It was not only the face of one who loves, but the face of one whose love is returned.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c038c25
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I should rather, Philippa, marry where there is no love than marry and find love turn to jealousy.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6538cea
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A reluctant watchdog, Culter held a post of small dignity, vulnerable to a thousand shafts of wit ... which did not arrive. Francis at his most quiet, his most responsible showed his elder brother the face, Adam thought, his friends sometimes saw. And from that realized that Francis, in those final days, was drawing from obscurity an old friendship, to be remembered later maybe, and recognized.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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2fcb7ba
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If one believes in God, but has learned not to pray, one offers only, in silence, one's apologies, and then asks the spirit to do what it can.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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68c4006
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A reckoning formally appointed and now paid to the limit. A tribute to Janus, God of Gates, to prevent that other, deferred payment to Charon.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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bed01f5
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He has merely broken, as always, every promise he ever made, before man or God.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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749595a
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Can you imagine what it feels like for me, to pledge my word to preserve a girl's honour and have it broken for me by Francis?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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befc59e
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Austin said, 'He is very plausible. I believed him when he gave me his oath.' 'Never do that,' said Richard flatly.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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55f4f6f
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Sybilla said, 'I wish you would explain something you said. That there was something formidable in that household of Sevigny?' 'Ah,' said Piero Strozzi. 'It does not lend itself truly to words. But you know, perhaps, you, Lord Culter and you, Blacklock, the alla sanguigna, the blue-red shimmer of a sword when it is drawn from the flesh? That is what it was like: the alla sanguigna, burning behind all the politenesses.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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902e25c
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He was not his own master when he left Russia,' Sybilla said. 'Nor was he his own master when you brought him to France. He is like a river forced into glass and driven from stem to stem of a conjurer's maze without ever reaching the sea.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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567a261
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Quel changement, Strozzi had said, and it was true. The change was there, and not only in the chamois and lawn, replacing the velvet, the rubies, the gold tissue. It was as if all about him had been stripped down and cleansed and reduced, without blurring, to its true structure. And his eyes, which were smiling, were clear.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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09ac170
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In Sevigny, there was something so deep and so dangerous that it could barely be felt. But there was no music. And there was no laughter.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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79b31b9
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We don't go near the bridge,' said Lymond peacefully. 'Excuse me,' said Fergie Hoddim. 'How can you wreck a fine bridge without going near it?' 'By sending something else near it instead,' Lymond said. 'An ox to Jupiter, a dog to Hecate, a dove to Venus, a sow to Ceres, a fish to Neptune. What, instead of Fergie Hoddim, shall we sacrifice?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f1e8aad
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It is not enough,' Robert Reid said, 'to offer justice. The laws of men, the laws of God himself are not enough unless you know the heart, the tongue, the brain, the gut of your people.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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19d7e88
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I once heard a man speak, who had understanding, and the promise of vision. He was called the Master of Culter.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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d47ff04
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Jerott, his face frowning with sleeplessness, was looking at Richard, this powerful man with the brilliant grey eyes who had not contemplated bereavement with stoicism but was rebelling, as Sybilla was not rebelling, against what he had found.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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774ba4c
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Sometimes,' said Mikal, 'one must travel to find what is love.' 'Sometimes,' said Philippa stoutly, 'one must travel to find what is kindness. I know what is----I know what love is.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f549bd1
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He has tried to end his life twice. Once Archie brought him back. Now I have done the same. We have interfered in what doesn't concern us. He belongs to himself and is at his own disposal. Or else what are we?' Richard Crawford, his brother's wrist in his hand, laid it down gently and turned to him. 'We are,' he said, 'at least no less than the animals. We are members of a race, and of a kingdom, and of a family. The world has borrowed his ..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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3f46e83
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He is not going to come back now, for me, for you or for anyone. This time he has found the boatman, and the boatman has taken him over.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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ac8b21d
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Are you mourning? Seneca says a wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can. You should be pleased. At last Francis has managed to follow his own misguided path without the rest of us consuming time and energy on setting him right.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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54a633d
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At the end of life, parent and kinsman are as a blind man set to look after a burning lamp.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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650a6dd
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You Scotsmen: you wish to be like the elephant, hacked to pieces for refusing to bow. You should follow my rule: here am I, supple and amenable as a goatskin glove of Vendome and pleasant to all, Duke and dotard alike.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f328d3b
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He isn't coming,' said Adam. 'Splendid,' said Piero Strozzi heartily. 'I love him, but I have brethren enough who are trying to climb with a foot on my neck.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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d9b7406
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You did not, I trust, persuade your eminent friend to forsake his bower in favour of these noisome marshes? That would indeed be a case of the punishment being born at the same time as the sin.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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12b5fe6
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That way, that sunlit, gentle path was set with mines, and had at the end of it a chasm she could not contemplate. So she hid her impulse, and did not know, because he was better at concealment than she, that he had noticed it.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c494347
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Meanwhile, battles are fought not by knights, as you well know, but by mercenaries. They are employed, as mastiffs are employed in the boar season, and victory goes to the deepest purse, while the people suffer the cost of them. That is war without pride ruled by chivalry, as the Master of Game rules the hunting field.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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518009c
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What I cannot control is the stupid man, launched upon a war which is against his material interests. And there is no scavenger of the air, or beast of the earth, or ooze of the sea which will offend nature like two such, opposed to one another.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c932008
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I tell you that whatever infatuation you have fallen into, you cannot keep that man at your side. He belongs where he belongs and he will arrive there, no matter how deep you bury him. Best free him at once and save the heart ache.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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baa5257
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I think it would be truer to say,' Philippa said, 'that both of us at the time had our reasons for hurting you.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6c94502
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For him, it was now of no importance, as his place in the world was of no consequence. He was home, after long and harsh buffeting. And it was she, who knew his quality as Grey had done, who had to live with the knowledge that there was no channel by which it could continue; that for the purposes of the present world the flourish, so brief, was now over with.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8e2c85c
|
our childhood is over now, Marshal. Mankind can survive very well without an intimate study of your susceptibilities but not, unfortunately, without your other functions and talents. Do you think I bring any child into the world to live for himself alone?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8bbbcec
|
Is that your whole measure? To shirk what is difficult? To escape to safety, like a strawberry-preacher, when your friends are in danger? My gentleman: if you run from me now, I will brand you and your sister in France, in Scotland, in Midculter and out of it for what you were: rotten stock.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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79e7c5a
|
Then I tell you,' Sybilla said, 'that you have no leave to die. Nor have you leave to desert the race you belong to. I want your word that from this moment, you live.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f0301d5
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There was a space, during which, of the five men and women standing or kneeling about Francis Crawford, only one watched him. Then Lymond said clearly, 'On my honour, I promise it.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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2dd7f7e
|
I could not have done that. I fear nothing and no one. I respect nothing and no one. But I could not have done that.' 'You have done it,' Jerott said. 'It is easy to do it, out of hatred. But you are right. I know of no one else on earth who could have done it out of love.
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Dorothy Dunnett |