Anna Chapin Ray

“ The three years' difference in their ages counted for little, since Rob was manly and self-reliant to a rare degree. They never clashed; they merely passed each other by on the other side. Ronald was unfeignedly sorry for Rob and showed it. He showed, also, a courteous tolerance for Rob's hobbies of whose charm he himself had no comprehension. He loved exercise; but he hated sports. American football, to his mind, was a thing to be classed with the bull fights of Spain. Rob's injury was one more proof of the theory he had always cherished. ”

“ At their best, in summer and to active legs, Quebec sidewalks are none too safe. The insecure boarding, striped with wide cracks, the unexpected steps at the corners of the streets: these are gloomily suggestive of sprained ankles to come. Covered with the white frosts of autumn, they become dangerous; overlaid with a thin coating of hard-trodden snow, they are altogether deadly. For a week after the first snowfall, Rob managed to reach the terrace in safety. ”

“ If you don't like us, you can stay at home. For my part, I wish you would."
All the pent-up nervous energy brought on by the shock of her father's sudden death, by the need of adjusting her girlish plans to fit their changed conditions, by the daily and hourly wear and tear of work and worry, of petty snubs and open rudenesses: all this was pouring forth upon the tide of her own words. And, under all her excitement, she fully realized whither it was carrying her, realized it and regretted it. Nevertheless, for the moment, she seemed to herself powerless to stem the tide of her own anger. ”

“ If we'd been meant to be just like New York, we should probably have grown just as big and busy and fashionable. We aren't. We're not New York, but Canada; and we are proud of being Canadians and of taking ourselves in earnest. ”

“ We may not be so fashionable; we may wear our clothes a little longer and not have so many of them. We may not have such wide streets, nor such long cars in them. We may not be the least bit like the people you have been used to meeting in New York. We don't care, if we aren't. ”

“ Now and then, however, his conscience did smite him a little, as he marked the unfailing kindliness with which Ronald looked out for his physical weakness. Rob hated being looked out for. Nevertheless, he could not fail to be struck by Ronald's constant heed of his comfort.
"And yet, do you know," he said to his mother, one night, at the end of a long discussion of the whole Leslie family; "good as the fellow is—and he is good, too—he gives me the feeling that he is best off, doddering about over a tea tray and holding yarn for people to wind. He's a nice lady and a pretty one ”