“ You would have said that he played Hamlet—or the tuba—or pinochle—you would never have laid your hand on your heart and said: "He is a hermit who lived ten years in a cave for love of one lady—to win another."The dancing pavilion extended above the waters of the river. Gay lanterns and frosted electric globes shed a soft glamour within it. A hundred ladies and gentlemen from the inn and summer cottages flitted in and about it. To the left of the dusty roadway down which the hermit had tramped were the inn and grill-room. ”
Quotes from To Him Who Waits (O. Henry)
“ The hermit folded his arms and leaned against a tree. Beatrix, with a sigh, settled down upon the mat of pine needles like a bluebird upon her nest. The hermit followed suit; drawing his feet rather awkwardly under his gunny-sacking."It must be nice to be a mountain," said he, with ponderous lightness, "and have angels in blue climb up you instead of flying over you.""Mamma had neuralgia," said Beatrix, "and went to bed, or I couldn't have come. It's dreadfully hot at that horrid old inn. ”
“ And I don't want to marry—unless it's somebody I like. That's why I'd like to be a hermit. Hermits don't ever marry, do they?""Hundreds of 'em," said the hermit, "when they've found the right one.""But they're hermits," said the youngest and beautifulest, "because they've lost the right one, aren't they?""Because they think they have," answered the recluse, fatuously. "Wisdom comes to one in a mountain cave as well as to one in the world of 'swells,' as I believe they are called in the argot.""When one of the 'swells' brings it to them," said Miss Trenholme. ”
