Frances Browne, Once a Week (1860)
“ There was something about the Hessings which kept impertinence at a distance. Sensible people concluded that such resolute reserve could spring only from pride, and left them to their chosen solitude. The doctor and I were solitary, too, but not from choice; the hum of talk or reading—the low laughter which came from their room as we sat by our evening fires, made us wish to know more of them. ”
Frances Browne, Once a Week (1860)
“ You are a steady student who mind your studies, keep out of clubs and mischief, and have such a nice circle of your own in Frau Subert’s rooms, with that sensible old doctor and those clever young men in the third floor. Well, there are people in palaces who envy those snug social evenings of yours,” and the Russian sighed like the wind through an old house. “If one of them stole in some night, would you let him warm himself at your fire?” “A stranger should always get the best seat,” said I. Sensibly spoken; but would the stranger get it?” ”
Frances Browne, Once a Week (1860)
“ The doctor thought Frau Subert did—he had seen her show them extraordinary deference for lodgers in the third floor—and heard her speak in an earnest confidential tone to the eldest, but could never catch a word. One might as well hope to get intelligence out of the Holstein cheese she brought up every morning, as from Frau Subert. There was no getting the woman into a chat, beyond the state of the weather and the arrangements for breakfast and dinner, she had no coversation, and her daughter was, if possible, less communicative. ”
