Ralph Stock

Name: South of the Line — The Laugh
Author: Ralph Stock

South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

Summary

“South of the Line — The Laugh”, published in 1922, is a work by Ralph Stock. It explores elements such as Crowther, Mata and Rahiti.

Quotes from South of the Line — The Laugh (Ralph Stock)

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ For once Mata failed to obey. She did not run, but walked, very slowly for her, down the veranda steps and along the beach, with the pearl necklet forgotten in her hand. Against the bole of a wind-bent palm she leant at last, staring over the sea. She was trying to understand. But out of her groping thoughts only the old, immutable truths emerged. This large man with the kindly eyes and tickling moustache was the most wonderful being in the world, the only being in the world. He knew everything and could do anything. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ On the veranda, with his chair pushed back from the débris of breakfast, Crowther was engaged in the rather more protracted and infinitely less accommodating reflections of middle age. Mata was sixteen. Sixteen was a fairly advanced age for a child, wasn't it? And what was it that he had sworn to himself should occur on her sixteenth birthday—and on her fifteenth, and fourteenth, for the matter of that? He pretended that it was an effort to remember, though, as a fact the thing had hovered over him like a cloud for some time past. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ It was a pretty little game for a grown man to be playing with himself, this juggling with an evil hour by putting back the clock. It is popular, too, but, like most games, it comes to an end. Mata was sixteen. Mata must go "outside."
Having decided so much, irrefutably this time, Crowther's musings led him back to the beginning of it all—that awful dawn ten years ago, when, on the tail end of a hurricane, a fine three-masted schooner loomed out of the murk to wind'ard, running under bare poles and head-on for Rahiti. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ With the telescope resting on the veranda rail, Crowther punctuated the performance with grunts of approval: "Ah! Good! Umph! Now——" He had taught Mata how to take Rahiti pass at the turn of the tide, as he had taught her all that she knew, and his was the intense pride of the tutor in an accomplished pupil. It was natural.
The canoe had now reached the untroubled waters of the lagoon, and before its prow had slid to rest on the beach in front of the bungalow the girl leapt into the knee-deep water and held aloft a gleaming fish. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ Why should he always have to laugh? By heavens, he would laugh no more! He would make of Rahiti a home—a real home—worth "longing for"! He would—
As a matter of fact, what Crowther did the next morning was to subject his reflection in the looking glass to an unsmiling survey, and with equal gravity extract four gray hairs from his head. After which he set to work with newborn zest, planning certain additions to the bungalow.
It was about this time that the monthly schooner brought a youth named Owen to Rahiti seeking employment. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ So Mata went "outside" to acquire such additional frills as an enlightened age deems indispensable to budding womanhood, and Crowther settled down to wait once more, this time for two mortal years.
It was a dreary business, as dreary as Mata appeared to find her end of the contract. Crowther had been under the impression that no feminine mind was proof against the lures of "outside," yet after eighteen months of them, and with only another six to go, she was still, according to her unfailing letters, "longing for home," which meant Rahiti, and yes—himself. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ Crowther took to him on the instant.
"I want you to take the copra entirely off my hands," he told him in the mosquito-proof office with its battered, ill-kept ledger and litter of island specimens.
"I'm sick of the sight and smell and feel of it. I—er—have other things to do."
Owen gravely inclined his head.
"Sit down," said Crowther; "have a cigar. We'd better try and understand one another as soon as possible. What brought you to these outrageous parts?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ It was not until the evening that he could bring himself to endure an interview with the sole survivor, who stared at him with wide, inquiring eyes, and answered his questions, or failed to answer them, according to the whim of the moment. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Laugh (1922)

“ Her head sank to his shoulder, and there was the hint of a woman's inexplicable tears in her eyes.
"Uncle," she said, playing with the middle button of his drill jacket, "you're too good to me."
"Much," he admitted promptly. "I often marvel at my own generosity, forbearance, and all the rest of it. It would be different if you gave any cause for it—if you were a good girl, for instance—but as it is——" He sighed heavily and lapsed into silence. ”

Ralph Stock

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Quotes from South of the Line — The Laugh (Ralph Stock)

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