“ A young man who plays his part in society by looking on in green spectacles, and listening with a sickly smile, may be a prodigy of intellect and a mine of virtue, but he is hardly, perhaps, the right sort of man to have at a picnic. ”
Wilkie Collins, Armadale (1864). copy citation
| Author | Wilkie Collins |
|---|---|
| Source | Armadale |
| Topic | society virtue |
| Date | 1864 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1895/1895-h/1895-h.htm |
Context
“and her son (the Reverend Samuel) in delicate health—two people less capable, apparently of adding to the hilarity of the day could hardly have been discovered in the length and breadth of all England. A young man who plays his part in society by looking on in green spectacles, and listening with a sickly smile, may be a prodigy of intellect and a mine of virtue, but he is hardly, perhaps, the right sort of man to have at a picnic. An old lady afflicted with deafness, whose one inexhaustible subject of interest is the subject of her son, and who (on the happily rare occasions when that son opens his lips) asks everybody eagerly,”
source
