Henry Handel Richardson

Name: Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV
Author: Henry Handel Richardson

Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

Summary

“Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV”, published in 1917, is a work by Henry Handel Richardson. It explores elements such as Purdy, Mahony and Ballarat.

Quotes from Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (Henry Handel Richardson)

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ Having followed for a few hundred yards the wide, rut-riddled thoroughfare of Main Street, the riders branched off to cross rising ground. They proceeded in single file and at a footpace, for the highway had been honeycombed and rendered unsafe; it also ascended steadily. Just before they entered the bush, which was alive with the rich, strong whistling of magpies, Purdy halted to look back and wave his hat in farewell. Mahony also half-turned in the saddle. There it lay--the scattered, yet congested, unlovely wood and canvas settlement that was Ballarat. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ Opening it Mahony discovered three crossed pages, written in a delicately pointed, minute, Italian hand.
He read the letter to the end, deliberately, and with a growing sense of relief: composition, expression and penmanship, all met with his approval. "This is the writing of a person of some refinement, my son."
"Well, er . . . yes," said Purdy. He seemed about to add a further word, then swallowed it, and went on: "Though, somehow or other, Till's different to herself, on paper. But she's the best of girls, Dick. Not one o' your ethereal, die-away, bread-and-butter misses. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ The horses shambled along the broad, hilly tracks of North Melbourne; warily picked their steps through the city itself. Dingy oil-lamps, set here and there at the corners of roads so broad that you could hardly see across them, shed but a meagre light, and the further the riders advanced, the more difficult became their passage: the streets, in process of laying, were heaped with stones and intersected by trenches. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ Extraordinary, aye, and distressing, too, the ease with which the human organism adapted itself; it was just a case of the green caterpillar on the green leaf. Well, he could console himself with the knowledge that his apparent submission was only an affair of the surface. He had struck no roots; and it would mean as little to his half-dozen acquaintances on Ballarat when he silently vanished from their midst, as it would to him if he never saw one of them again. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ Purdy laughed and paid him back in kind. "Yes, and the funk you were in for fear Spiny Tatlow 'ud see us, and peach to the rest!"
"Yes. What young idiots boys are!"
In thought he added: "And what snobs!" For the breach of convention--he was an upper-form boy at the time--had not been his sole reason for wishing to shake off his junior. Behind him, Mahony, when he reached home, closed the door of one of the largest houses in the most exclusive square in Dublin. Whereas Purdy lived in a small, common house in a side street. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ Purdy was not jesting, and did not join in the fresh salvo of laughter with which Mahony greeted his words. "Oh, blow it, Dick, you're too fastidious--too damned particular! Say what you like, there's good in all of 'em--even in old Mother Flannigan 'erself--and 'specially when she's got a drop inside 'er. Fuddle old Moll a bit, and she'd give you the very shift off her back.--Don't I thank the Lord, that's all, I'm not built like you! Why, the woman isn't born I can't get on with. All's fish that comes to my net.--Oh, to be young, Dick, and to love the girls! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ She's AI 'erself, but she's got a mother. . . . By Job, Dick, if I thought Tilly 'ud ever get like that . . . and they're exactly the same build, too."
It would certainly be well for him to inspect Purdy's flame, thought Mahony. Especially since the anecdote told did not bear out the good impression left by the letter--went far, indeed, to efface it. Still, he was loath to extend his absence by spending a night at Geelong, where, a, it came out, the lady lived; and he replied evasively that it must depend on the speed with which he could put through his business in Melbourne. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (1917)

“ Purdy was silent for a time. Then, with a side-glance at his companion, he volunteered: "I say, Dick, I know some one who'd suit you."
"The deuce you do!" said Mahony, and burst out laughing. "Miss Tilly's sister, no doubt?"
"No, no--not her. Jinn's all right, but she's not your sort. But they've got a girl living with 'em--a sort o' poor relation, or something--and she's a horse of quite another colour.--I say, old man, serious now, have you never thought o' gettin' spliced?" ”

Henry Handel Richardson

Summary

Quotes from Australia Felix — Part I, Chapter IV (Henry Handel Richardson)

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