R. Austin Freeman

Name: The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights
Author: R. Austin Freeman

The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

Summary

“The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights”, published in 1911, is a work by R. Austin Freeman. It explores elements such as workaday, Thorndyke and shorthand.

Quotes from The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (R. Austin Freeman)

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ It was a blissful afternoon. Two and a half hours of happiness unalloyed did I spend at that shiny, leather-clad desk, guiding my nimble pen across the pages of the note-book. It introduced me to a new world—a world in which love and learning, sweet intimacy and crusted archaeology, were mingled into the oddest, most whimsical, and most delicious confection that the mind of man can conceive. ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ I have often thought that, if some lethal vapour of highly preservative properties—such as formaldehyde, for instance—could be shed into the atmosphere of this apartment, the entire and complete collection of books and bookworms would be well worth preserving, for the enlightenment of posterity, as a sort of anthropological appendix to the main collection of the Museum. For, surely, nowhere else in the world are so many strange and abnormal human beings gathered together in one place. ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ Love is a foolish thing judged by workaday standards, and the thoughts and actions of lovers foolish beyond measure. But the workaday standard is the wrong one, after all; for the utilitarian mind does but busy itself with the trivial and transitory interests of life, behind which looms the great and everlasting reality of the love of man and woman. ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ One never sees them elsewhere. Do they steal away at closing time into the depths of the Museum and hide themselves until morning in sarcophagi or mummy cases? Or do they creep through spaces in the book-shelves and spend the night behind the volumes in a congenial atmosphere of leather and antique paper? Who can say? What I do know is that when Ruth Bellingham entered the reading-room she appeared in comparison with these like a creature of another order ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ Well, I have several hours free every day—usually, the whole of the afternoon up to six or half-past—and it occurs to me that if you were to go to the Museum in the mornings you could get out your books, look up passages (you could do that without using your right hand) , and put in book-marks. Then I could come along in the afternoon and you could read out the selected passages to me, and I could take them down in shorthand. We should get through as much in a couple of hours as you could in a day using longhand. ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ I exclaimed tragically, giving her hand a final squeeze (whereby she became suddenly aware of its position, and withdrew it rather hastily) . "Would you throw away a whole afternoon's work? I won't, certainly; so, good-bye until to-morrow. I shall turn up in the reading-room as early as I can. You had better take the tickets. Oh, and you won't forget about the copy of the will for Doctor Thorndyke, will you?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ Passing this repository of the associated products about ten o'clock in the morning, I perceived in the shadow of the cavern no less a person than Miss Oman. She saw me at the same moment, and beckoned peremptorily with a hand that held a large Spanish onion. I approached with a deferential smile.
"What a magnificent onion, Miss Oman! and how generous of you to offer it to me——"
"I wasn't offering it to you. But there! Isn't it just like a man——"
"Isn't what just like a man?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ He annoyed my father a good deal, too, by making unnecessary alterations in the house in Queen Square when he fitted up his museum. We have a certain sentiment with regard to that house. Our people have lived in it ever since it was built, when the square was first laid out in the reign of Queen Anne, after whom the square was named. It is a dear old house. ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ Doctor Thorndyke wants to see the will because the case interests him. He is an enthusiast, you know, and he put the request as a personal favour to himself."
"That is very nice and delicate of him, and I will explain the position to my father. If he is willing for Doctor Thorndyke to see the copy, I will send or bring it over this evening. Have we finished?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ It may seem rather cheek for a comparative stranger like me to make such a proposal to a lady; but if you'd been a man—in these special circumstances—I should have made it all the same, and you would have accepted as a matter of course. ”

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Source: Wikisource

R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris — VI. Sidelights (1911)

“ Oh, he is an Egyptologist, too, and quite an enthusiast. He has a really fine collection of scarabs and other small objects such as it is possible to keep in a private house. I have always thought that it was his enthusiasm for everything Egyptian that brought him and my uncle together on terms of such intimacy; though I believe he is an excellent lawyer, and he is certainly a very discreet, cautious man. ”

R. Austin Freeman

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