E. Nesbit

Name: Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead
Author: E. Nesbit

Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

Summary

“Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead”, published in 1893, is a work by E. Nesbit. It explores elements such as Benoliel, Kate and Waits.

Quotes from Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (E. Nesbit)

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ I heard a mass sung, and, Jasper, it was a mass for the dead. I followed the office. You are not a Catholic, but I thought—I feared—oh, I don't know what I thought. I am thankful there is nothing wrong with you."
I felt a sudden certainty, and complete sense of power possess me. Now, in this her moment of weakness, while she was so completely under the influence of a strong emotion, I could and would save her from Benoliel, and myself from life-long pain.
"Kate," I said, "I believe it is a warning. You shall not marry this man. You shall marry me, and none other." ”

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Source: Wikisource

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ There was nothing to trouble us; no one had discovered our whereabouts, and my wife's fear of Benoliel's revenge seemed to have dissolved before the flame of our happiness.
And as we sat there, peaceful and untroubled, the Imp of the Perverse jogged my elbow, as, alas! he does so often, and I was moved to tell my wife that I, too, had heard that unearthly midnight music—that her hearing of it was not, as she had grown to think, a mere nightmare—a strange dream—but something more strange, more significant. I told her how I had heard the mass for the dead, and all the tale of that night. ”

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Source: Wikisource

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ The first four or five days of our marriage are flowers that memory keeps always fresh. Kate's face had recovered its wild-rose bloom, and she laughed and sang and jested and enjoyed all our little daily adventures with the fullest, freest-hearted gaiety. Then I committed the supreme imbecility of my life—one of those acts of folly on which one looks back all one's life with a half stamp of the foot, and the unanswerable question, "How on earth could I have been such a fool?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ From the moment when she heard Benoliel's name on the sacristan's lips, all Kate's gaiety and happiness returned. She loved me, and she hated Benoliel. She was married to me, and he was dead; and his death was far more of a shock to me than to her. Women are curiously kind and curiously cruel. ”

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Source: Wikisource

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ True, Father Fabian had counselled her to marry Benoliel, but I could hardly believe that most priests would advise a girl to marry a bad man, whom she did not love, for the sake of any worldly gain whatsoever.
She received the suggestion with favour, but without enthusiasm, and we sought out a Catholic church to make inquiries. As we opened the outer door of the church we heard music, and as we stood in the entrance and I laid my hand on the heavy inner door, my other hand was caught by Kate. ”

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Source: Wikisource

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ Two hours later Kate was my wife, and we were quietly and prosaically eating our wedding-breakfast in the dining-room of the Grand Hotel.
"And where shall we go?" I said.
"I don't know," she answered, smiling; "you have not much money, have you?"
"Oh dear me, yes. I'm not rich, but I'm not absolutely a church mouse."
"Could we go to Devonshire?" she asked, twisting her new ring round and round.
"Devonshire! Why, that is where——"
"Yes, I know: Benoliel arranged to go there. Jasper, I am afraid of Benoliel."
"Then why——"
"Foolish person," she answered. ”

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Source: Wikisource

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ Kate is obstinate; it is her one fault; I knew how vain would be my entreaties, yet I offered them; how unavailing my arguments, yet they were set forth; how useless my love and my sorrow, yet I showed them to her.
"No," she answered, but she flung her arms round my neck as she spoke, and held me as one may hold one's best treasure. "No, no; you are poor, and he is rich. You wouldn't have me break my father's heart: he's so proud, and if he doesn't get some money next month, he will be ruined. I'm not deceiving any one. Mr. Benoliel knows I don't care for him ”

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Source: Wikisource

E. Nesbit, Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (1893)

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1924, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 98 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”

E. Nesbit

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Quotes from Grim Tales — The Mass for the Dead (E. Nesbit)

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