Phyllis Bottome

“ What a wonderful people the English are, so precisely described by their beautiful proverb, 'We turn forever down a long lane'! Non. If I had been in your place, for instance, I should have been prepared for you to produce a christening-mug!"
"I dare say I shall be prepared for that by and by," said Geoffrey, without annoyance, "but over here we don't arrange things so much beforehand. As a matter of fact, I did n't arrange my marriage at all; it was as inevitable and as unmanageable as a summer day."
"You should not have summer days that are unmanageable," said Marcel. ”

“ She wondered if Marcel meant something French.
"It is a little difficult to explain, Mademoiselle," said Marcel, hesitating. "If you were his wife—well—then he would have arrived, would he not? And if there were some other arrangement, in that also there would be a point of decision; but an engagement that is very free and continuous and does not arrive, one wonders a little if the imagination is capable of leaving it enough to do good work. Personally I should say, looking about me at Geoffrey's attempts, no. He is wool-gathering, the poor child. ”

“ But you have no imagination; your eyebrows rise at the word dozens. I should recommend to your notice the progress of the spring. Is the violet out of place because of the daffodil, and have you no room for the tulip when it rises simultaneously with your little milk-faced primrose? ”

“ I have no fear that Geoffrey will not listen to it."
"Comment?" demanded Marcel, nibbling without appreciation an English rock cake. "A bonne à tout faire? What a rôle you provide her with, Mademoiselle! Are you not afraid the poor little one will become unwholesomely fatigued?"
Geoffrey intervened hastily; he was watching Emily's foot on the floor. It tapped, and he had never seen her tap her foot before.
"Don't you worry, Marcel, old boy," he said, putting the sketch of Fanny back against the wall. "I 'll work up as hard as I can at any tail-end of an inspiration that comes my way ”