Leonard Merrick

Name: The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories — With Intent to Defraud
Author: Leonard Merrick

The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

Summary

“The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories — With Intent to Defraud”, published in 1919, is a work by Leonard Merrick. It explores elements such as Orkney, Eva and Chick.

Quotes from The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (Leonard Merrick)

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ He was forty years of age, and soberly and deliberately he wished he were dead. Only one thing deterred him from making away with himself in a painless fashion; it was the knowledge that he would leave her and Chick unprovided for.
This was his frame of mind when he came to project a fraud. He saw his way to dying comfortably while safeguarding Chick and Eva from want. That is to say, he saw his way if he could raise the money necessary to pay the premium; he proposed to assure his life and commit suicide. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ Orkney looked at him in blank disapproval when he had stammered to a conclusion.
"This is very unbusiness-like," he said, "very unbusiness-like indeed You put me in a most awkward position, Collier. I don't want to see you die, of course—I—I hope I have a heart—but an agreement is an agreement, and I have pressing need for a thousand pounds. As it happens, I've got a bill——"
"You see," said George, helplessly, "there's the child! I don't like to leave her alone in the world." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ The quiet parlour, with his pipe, and a novel, had been pleasant. He had gone up to his room at night without a groan, and seated himself at his desk in the morning with an unfamiliar zest. Only a month! Well, let him make the most of it!
But that was easier to say than to do. Death no longer figured in his thoughts as a perpetual holiday; now that he was a widower, it figured as a skeleton, and thrust itself into the cosiest hours. Perhaps Chick was on his knee and he was stroking her hair—and the skeleton clanked. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ The little house to the right was called "Broadlands," and the one to the left was called "The Towers"; and Collier, in a fit of moroseness, had labelled their own house, "The Hut," and made enemies among the neighbours.
Yes, Eva's sympathy had worn out, like the cheap drawing-room carpet. Balham and Tooting had got on her nerves, perhaps; or George, the failure, was a different man from the popular humorist with whom she had pictured herself driving to brilliant receptions in fashionable gowns. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ I feel lighter, and there's a different aspect to things. I can't explain it."
"No!" said Orkney, firmly, "I won't hear it. I won't have the blame laid at the door of that poor little woman. This is cowardly, Collier. Be a man and say that you've changed your mind and are trying to back out."
"Very well, then," replied George, "I've changed my mind. I want to live, and to pay you the thousand pounds as soon as I can get it together." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ You say, 'assure'; the point is, I can't assure, because I can't put my hands on the money."
"Oh," said Orkney. "What did you think of assuring for?"
"While I am about it I want to make a proper provision; I want to arrange for an income of, say, four or five hundred. For them to get as much as that, from a safe investment, the premium would be pretty stiff. A year's premium would come to—well, I reckon it three hundred and twenty pounds. Now, my idea was——"
"Was—what?" asked the solicitor, blandly.
George was nervous. His gaze wandered. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ She was a pale, slight woman, with grey eyes and fluffy hair, and a red flannel dressing-grown in the morning. After luncheon, when she made her toilette, the grey eyes acquired a soulfulness that came out of a phial, and nobody would have suspected the tart and vulgar reproaches that could fall from her lips. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ Collier; it wasn't good taste."
"‘Good taste' be damned!" said George hotly. "Finally, you insist on your pound of flesh?"
"Finally," returned Orkney, rising, "I repeat that if you're a man of honour, there's only one thing for you to do." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Leonard Merrick, The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (1919)

“ Horace Orkney tapped his fingers together pensively.
"One likes to do a pal a turn, of course, but—— What company are you thinking of, anyhow? You seem to overlook the fact that in a case of suspected suicide——"
"I've overlooked nothing—I've thought it all out, and I know exactly what I shall do. A cousin of my wife's has a cottage in Kent, on the Darenth. We've often stayed there. The lawn slopes to the river, and there's an Indian canoe. No more solitary place could exist. ”

Leonard Merrick

Summary

Quotes from The Man Who Understood Women and Other Stories… (Leonard Merrick)

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