Owen Oliver

Name: The Box of Tricks
Author: Owen Oliver

The Box of Tricks (1909)

Summary

“The Box of Tricks”, published in 1909, is a work by Owen Oliver. It explores elements such as Woman's Rights, risk and Lucy.

Quotes from The Box of Tricks (Owen Oliver)

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ She had sailed with him on 'the uncharted seas' for five years, taken the risk of those who sail there. And she was fond of him in her cold way, she owned it to me; but there was a clear understanding, she said, and marriage was contrary to her principles. Oh! What's the good of 'understandings' and 'principles' when you ruin a man's life! Your dearest friend! I couldn't have done it. I couldn't have done it—liking him as she did. You are very generous, professor; and very straight—I like that man's word. However remote, however unlikely, friendship means the risk of spoiling a man's life. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ She was very unlike my idea of a lady who had written a treatise on Conic Sections; and still more unlike my notion of an advocate of "Woman's Rights" and female suffrage, the subjects upon which our controversy had taken place.
"You scarcely look the character," I confessed.
"How like a man!" she cried. "A woman who is not his humble slave must be a monster, of course, and wear dowdy frocks and short hair, and square-toed shoes!" She held out a tiny foot in a ridiculous, pointed, French shoe defiantly. The yacht rolled heavily just then, and her balance suffered. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ You can't make the main tie of human life a mere matter of business. It isn't so even between man and man or woman and woman. What is the relation to be?"
"Well—it ought to be friendship, if——" She paused.
"If," I said. "Isn't that the point?"
"If they would forget the 'man and woman' nonsense."
"If they could," I corrected. "And they can't. Miss Fane, you are a very clever young lady; the only woman's-rightist I have ever met who had common-sense; or who remained absolutely womanly. Is platonic friendship possible?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ If a woman had power, it was not by rights, but by her Eveishness."
"The way appointed by Nature," I asserted. "But you forget. Nature doesn't stand still. Men and women are different from what they were."
"I doubt it," I demurred.
"Well, their relations are different, anyhow. There is less 'domesticity' and more 'business'; less 'love' and more 'friendship'; but friendship is unripe yet. Marriage is only one of many careers for a woman now. The relations of men and women have altered, altered more than the world recognises. That is what 'Woman's Rights' mean ”

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Source: Wikisource

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ She adjusted her rugs and struggled with a pillow. I lifted her head and put the pillow right.
"Are we?" I insisted, as I laid her back.
"You know we are," she said. Her voice trembled and her eyes blinked. I drew her to me.
"Will you marry me, darling?" I begged. "Not because you promised, but because I love you and you love me. You know you do." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ Miss Fane paused in her attack on a pink ice.
"I am putting a weapon in your hands," she said, "but—yes. In their case, I do. Their case is very exceptional. They are like people with a sixth sense or a dual personality. I believe that such freaks of Nature exist; but I refuse to base a theory of life upon such abnormal instances. If every married couple were a 'Bob-and-Lucy,' I shouldn't worry about Woman's Rights. Her Bob would see that she got them; and it wouldn't matter much if she didn't. So I should just look out for my 'Bob'! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ She wasn't so good at scribbling about Woman's Rights as I; but she believed in them more. I don't mean that I am not an honest believer; but I am less of a recluse; more a woman of the world; more inclined—too much inclined—to see both sides of a question. I try to be practical and tolerant. I will give you an example. She would regard Lucy as a slave, because she hasn't a vote. I recognise that Lucy has her rights. You see that I am a sensible suffragist, professor."
"My dear Miss Fane," I said, "if I told you all that I see in you——! You are most sensible and most practical ”

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Source: Wikisource

Owen Oliver, The Box of Tricks (1909)

“ We argued about moral courage, the civic disabilities of women, the relative value of masculine reason and feminine instinct, why no lady ever buys a comic paper, and how Ellen Thornycroft Fowler came by man's prerogative of humour. ”

Owen Oliver

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Quotes from The Box of Tricks (Owen Oliver)

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