Edith Wharton

Name: The Custom of the Country — Chapter X
Author: Edith Wharton

The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

Summary

“The Custom of the Country — Chapter X”, published in 1913, is a work by Edith Wharton. It explores elements such as Spragg, Moffatt and Undine.

Quotes from The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (Edith Wharton)

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ Spragg did not ignore the gesture: he did not even withhold his hand. In his code the cut, as a conscious sign of disapproval, did not exist. In the south, if you had a grudge against a man you tried to shoot him; in the west, you tried to do him in a mean turn in business; but in neither region was the cut among the social weapons of offense. Mr. Spragg, therefore, seeing Moffatt in his path, extended a lifeless hand while he faced the young man scowlingly. Moffatt met the hand and the scowl with equal coolness. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ Behind an inner glazed enclosure, with its one window dimmed by a sooty perspective barred with chimneys, he seated himself at a dusty littered desk, and groped instinctively for the support of the scrap basket. Moffatt, uninvited, dropped into the nearest chair, and Mr. Spragg said, after another silence: "I'm pretty busy this morning."
"I know you are: that's why I'm here," Moffatt serenely answered. He leaned back, crossing his legs, and twisting his small stiff moustache with a plump hand adorned by a cameo.
"Fact is," he went on, "this is a coals-of-fire call. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ Mr. Spragg rose heavily from his seat. "I presume my daughter has her reasons," he said, moving toward the door in Moffatt's wake.
"I guess she has--same as I have for wanting you to step round with me to old Driscoll's. If Undine's reasons are as good as mine--"
"Stop right here, Elmer Moffatt!" the older man broke out with lifted hand. Moffatt made a burlesque feint of evading a blow; then his face grew serious, and he moved close to Mr. Spragg, whose arm had fallen to his side. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ Couldn't her father understand that nice girls, in New York, didn't regard getting married like going on a buggy-ride? It was enough to ruin a girl's chances if she broke her engagement to a man in Ralph Marvell's set. All kinds of spiteful things would be said about her, and she would never be able to go with the right people again. They had better go back to Apex right off--it was they and not SHE who had wanted to leave Apex, anyhow--she could call her mother to witness it. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ I see my way now to get there and keep there; and there's a kinder poetic justice in your being the man to help me up. If I can get hold of fifty thousand dollars within a day or so I don't care who's got the start of me. I've got a dead sure thing in sight, and you're the only man that can get it for me. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ Spragg's throat.
"But I DO want to get out of Driscoll's office," Moffatt imperturbably continued. "There's no future there for a fellow like me. I see things big. That's the reason Apex was too tight a fit for me. It's only the little fellows that succeed in little places. New York's my size--without a single alteration. I could prove it to you to-morrow if I could put my hand on fifty thousand dollars." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ Fact is, the law's a business that wants--" Mr. Spragg broke off, checked by a protest from Mr. Dagonet. "Oh, a PROFESSION, you call it? It ain't a business?" His smile grew more indulgent as this novel distinction dawned on him. "Why, I guess that's the whole trouble with Ralph. Nobody expects to make money in a PROFESSION ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (1913)

“ SHE don't beat about the bush the way you do. She told me straight out what was bothering her. She wants the Marvells to think she's right out of Kindergarten. 'No goods sent out on approval from this counter.' And I see her point--_I_ don't mean to publish my meemo'rs. Only a deal's a deal." He paused a moment, twisting his fingers about the heavy gold watch-chain that crossed his waistcoat. "Tell you what, Mr. Spragg, I don't bear malice--not against Undine, anyway--and if I could have afforded it I'd have been glad enough to oblige her and forget old times. ”

Edith Wharton

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Quotes from The Custom of the Country — Chapter X (Edith Wharton)

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