Walter De la Mare

Name: The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl
Author: Walter De la Mare

The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

Summary

“The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl”, published in 1923, is a work by Walter De la Mare. It explores elements such as Orchardson, Cairns and bowl.

Quotes from The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (Walter De la Mare)

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ Orchardson's little baby had been simply burning like a coal at death's door. It was a most interesting and enthralling piece of news. And I'm not so sure that I did not speculate how it was that in my long nocturnal journeyings in the wilds of dreamland, I had not heard its wailing cries as it, too, a much smaller spirit, ran along into the shadowy valley. For after all, abstractions like death are for a child little more than a vague and menacing something in a dream.
Mrs. Orchardson's baby had, of course, been sickening for some little time past. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ I said, “will that big silver bowl on the sideboard do for a font, Mrs. Orchardson? It's a very big bowl.”
She smiled at me brightly.
“Why, of course, you strange creature, that will do beautifully. And now——” She got up, and stood looking for a moment out of the window, as if she had forgotten my presence altogether. “In all this loveliness!” she almost whispered, though all that she could see was just an ordinary wet morning...
Dr. Sharp would not return again for an hour, so there were only Mrs. Orchardson, and Esther and Mr. Cairns in the bedroom besides myself and the baby. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ Orchardson meanwhile what to do with the bowl and the water.
In the hall he talked for a minute or two in secret with Esther. “In that case send the little boy to me, then,” I heard him say. “Mrs. Cairns will be at home. Poor tiny lamb! To think it must have suffered like you and me!” Esther shut her fair-lashed eyes a moment as if to show it would be a mercy if the baby did die, and then opened them again very stern and mournfully when she saw me watching her.
Yet in my heart of hearts I was perfectly sure that Mrs. Orchardson's little baby would not die. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ Orchardson, at the door of the bedroom, “He knows His lambs, all His lambs. And He is merciful.”
He leant his chin, and smiled towards me with a curious wrinkle on his face. His brown eyes reminded me of berries. They were full of kindness even though the look in them was not very attentive. I whispered to Esther, asking if I might be allowed to carry the silver bowl downstairs again. And all she gave me was a sharp shake of the head and a greenish look, because I don't think she liked to say no while Mr. Cairns was in hearing. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ At that she deliberately kicked down the fort I was building with her foot.
“You are a little devil incarnate; that's what you are,” she screamed at me, if one can scream without raising one's voice. “A little devil. You ought never to have been allowed in a Christian house. It's Tophet and the roaring flames that you're bound for, my young man. You've murdered that poor mite. You mark my words!”
I was so much enraged at this that I hit at a little bulge in her boot with one of my bricks.
“You're a beast,” I bawled at her in a voice no louder than her own. “You're a filthy beast. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ Anyhow, when one dark rainy morning the sharp need came for something of this kind, it was I who thought of the bowl, which, after all, could contain almost as much Jordan water as could the freestone font in St. Barnabas's, and was twenty times more beautiful. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ Cairns as he arst, he would have told you so.”
“I didn't want to go, and Mrs. Orchardson wouldn't have tried to make me.” The blood seemed to rise up in my body and I could hear my own voice growing more insolent and trumpeting every moment. “What's more, Miss Esther, I don't believe a bit in your old holy water. It isn't going to die, and even if you hope it will, it won't. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ She was kneeling at the sideboard.
“Esther never says a word, except to make me hate her,” I replied. “So, of course, most what she says about me is true. So I think now that the baby's quite better, Mrs. Orchardson, I had better go home again. Even Mr. Cairns wouldn't let me carry the bowl downstairs. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (1923)

“ He wouldn't care; he thinks you're a stupid hairy woman. And I think you're hateful." She lifted her hand and shut her eyes. “O, my God,” she said, “I can't stand it,” and all but ran out of the room. ”

Walter De la Mare

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Quotes from The Riddle and Other Stories — The Bowl (Walter De la Mare)

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