Bernard Capes, Priscilla Pipkin (1907)
“ I had come to think any environment would be better than that atmosphere of exotic and luxuriant suspicion in which my scepticism of all human motives had been forced of late into a preposterous growth. I wanted to be my young credulous self again; I was ready even to waive the question of the cheque, if only Hawkesby would leave me alone to skimp and deny myself, and recover lost ground thereby. ”
Bernard Capes, Priscilla Pipkin (1907)
“ Mrs. Hoskins, my landlady, when I rang her up to explain, explained. She had always mistrusted the girl, she said; she wore such small boots. There was an artful hussy hid somewhere behind that print apron. Priscilla, it appeared, had come straight “down from her attic that morning and give her notice—not a month’s, or a week’s, or a day’s, if you please; but had just up’d with her nose like a silk pairasole, and walked out of the house as grand as my lady.” It was possible, Mrs. Hoskins thought, that a letter she had received by the early post had inspired her to this astonishing decision. ”
Bernard Capes, Priscilla Pipkin (1907)
“ To my astonishment, Crœsus received me with affability. “You should have acknowledged that cheque, my boy,” he said. “You aren't come, I suppose, to ask for an advance on the next? No, no; that would never do. I can’t possibly entertain such a proposal.” “I haven’t made it, sir,” I said coldly. “I haven’t received any cheque from you, that’s all.” ”
