Max Pemberton

Name: Barbara of the Bell House
Author: Max Pemberton

Summary

“Barbara of the Bell House”, published in 1899, is a work by Max Pemberton. It explores elements such as the Bell House, sculls and lantern.

Quotes from Barbara of the Bell House (Max Pemberton)

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ With this word he condescended to get up and help me to moor the punt at the foot of the great oak which stands sentinel to the Bell House When we had made all straight, and had lighted our pipes, we landed at the rotting stage and crossed the ragged lawn toward the long windows of the lower storey. Dreary as the aspect was from the river, a closer acquaintance with the deserted building seemed veritably to chill the heart. It was as if all the trees about moaned a dirge for the dead hopes of the man who had lived and wrecked his life beneath their shade. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ Life and death—the river chants of both the song of noon -day, the dirge of the ultimate night.
Hut these are the thoughts of summer, and it is different when autumn gives a golden red to the leaves, and the mists rise almost as the sun sets. There is the sweetness in the morning air, indeed; but the nights are nights of damp and fog and deadly chill, no less to be dreaded because the moon gives the fullness of her light and the sheaves stand sentinels in the well-gleaned fields. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ No tramp seeking a night's lodging would carry a lantern in his hand. No pilferer would be moved to steal bricks and tumbling plaster. Yet there was the light now shining from the hall—now disappearing, now flashing—not from any window above, but up, as it were, from the very bowels of the earth. Then only I had a theory—the night-walker was one with business in the cellars of the Bell House. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ The whole world of the river is full of visitations; even the cottagers hear the voices of the dead.
It was upon a balmy day, early in the October of the year 1893, that I had the story of the Bell House for the first time. The narrator was my friend Eric Watson; the occasion was a voyage under sail in an aged punt that we had brought down from the lock. Until the moment that the cry for the "easy" came I had thought that Watson slept. The lazy motion of the hulk, the softness of the breeze, the drowsy ripple of the little waves upon the till, might well have induced dreams. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ Here a monk who must chant his office ad sæcula sæculorum; there a maiden who has shed tears through centuries; here a fine towering spectre that clanks its chains in dignity; there the poor shadows of a ghost who is a footstep and nothing more. Cells and refectories, old halls and secret chambers, even kitchens and cellars are peopled by the ready tongues of the doddering disciples of tradition. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ I chose the latter course, and passed through the lock when the clocks were striking ten.
Until this time I had given no thought to the voyage. There is no finer employment than a scull upon the river if the night be kind and the moon's light be your lantern. Then it is that the woods are outlined in the softest shapes; then that the ripple of the stream is the sweetest music. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ There are many men who, believing in nothing, have a very real dread of unseen dangers and of spiritual manifestations. I do not pretend to be one of these, but I am convinced that nothing would have taken me to the Bell House that night if I had not assured myself that I was answering a human summons, and going to the help of a fellow-creature. Of this I had little doubt when I sprang from the boat and ran swiftly across the lawn to the window by which I had entered the house three days before. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ That was why I went to the Bell House at night when all the village slept."
"But why did not your nurse or someone go with you?"
"The poor old soul is a cripple—she can only hobble about her garden. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Max Pemberton, Barbara of the Bell House (1899)

“ But it was not until we found ourselves at the foot of the great marble staircase, now cracked and chipped, and humbled in the perishing gold-work of its balustrades, that he uttered a protest, and one which echoed my own inclination.
"Come now," said he, "you 're not going to climb those stairs." ”

Max Pemberton

Summary

Quotes from Barbara of the Bell House (Max Pemberton)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature