“ These were the little tiresome things she did, but she carried her high, strict standard into the general conduct of life as well, and though ber interference was exasperating—parents resenting it for their children as being a reflection upon themselves—it was invariably right. There was the pinch, we all felt criticised. She was upright as a character in a Sunday school book, no slackness in her anywhere. Her standard became the standard of the entire Pension—when she was present and, now that she has gone, the Pension realises that secretly it was rather proud of her. Even in the kitchen! ”
Algernon Blackwood
Summary
Quotes from Value (Algernon Blackwood)
“ Within fifteen minutes of being introduced to some new arrival, she would ask in her courteous way, “Please, who are those people? Would you kindly introduce me?” yet she would dance with us in the corridor when someone played a waltz, and even join in pillow-fighis, while pulling down skirts and making sure that the servant was clearing the supper-table properly. She would walk four miles into town to pay a boot bill, forgotten for many months, and when she reached the shop would wonder why she had come there, and order another pair of boots instead. ”
“ Yet in life we should net have said “poor old hands;” the description would have been more harsh. Alert as a cricket and quick as a hawk, she would dart about the Pension on her self-imposed mission like a lean grey cat, pouncing upon offenders before they knew she was in the room. ”
