Anne Douglas Sedgwick

“ Since it is true enough, it's better, I suppose, that it came out as soon as possible,” said Giles.
“Oh—I'd rather it had never come out at all,” Jerry objected. “It makes no difference to me. I don't care a hang about ancestors and all that sort of thing, and I expect we've plenty of rotters among our own. It's Mummy who takes it so hard. If only Alix had consented to marry me at once, when I asked her, we'd have been all right. People always put up with the fait accompli, don't they, and Mummy's so awfully fond of Alix. ”

“ To wait, to hold on, was a different matter, and Giles knew a little turn of fear as he saw it. It was no good Jerry's thinking that anyone else could hold on for him.
“You can't manage it unless you can count on yourself,” he now informed him. “There's nobody else for you to count on. Alix is against you, and your mother is against you. It won't be an easy thing to marry Alix. It's not only as a dancing Nike you have to think of her. It's as madame Vervier's daughter, too.” ”

“ You've seen her dance—in that white and crystal dress with the silver round her head—it's like the rhythm of Shelley's Hymn of Pan. When I look at her dancing, I long to dance with her; when I dance with her, I long to be looking at her. ”

“ He believed that it might still be possible if Jerry could be good enough. “If you hold on, you know,” he said—and Jerry could not think it irrelevant—“I feel sure your mother will stand by you, and if she stands by you, everything will fall into place and you and Alix can go on dancing. So hold on. Deserve her. I'm standing by you already, as you know.” He smiled down at Jerry, so young, so slight, but so charming and so sound. If Jerry could get strength enough to hold on, he would waft Alix far away. Philosophers could have little to do with dancing white and silver Nikes. ”

“ Your only chance is to bring your mother round. That will take time. You'll have to show your mother that you mean it.”
Jerry eyed him for a moment. “Well, Alix is a French girl. She's rubbing it in enough that she's French—and she'll obey her mother. If her mother tells her that she's to marry me, I expect she will; and I'm pretty sure I could get round madame Vervier. By the way, what sort of a woman is she, really?” Jerry added, and boyishly, touchingly in Giles's eyes, he suddenly flushed. ”