Walter De la Mare

Name: The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship
Author: Walter De la Mare

The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

Summary

“The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship”, published in 1923, is a work by Walter De la Mare. It explores elements such as aunt, Count and Richard.

Quotes from The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (Walter De la Mare)

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ Whatever the happiness within, Richard, you poor blind creature, don't you see it? Can the Count marry a woman who's all but eyeless, who can but glimmer to-day out of what will be sightless and hopeless as that night outside, to-morrow? I have been struggling against the truth. I like being here. I like—Oh, I have stayed too long. You stupid, shortsighted men! He has seen me day after day. He has seen me go fingering on from chair to chair. Was I hiding it? Do I or do I not wear spectacles? Do they distort my eyes till I look like an owl in a belfry? ”

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Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ I put my hand on my aunt's as it lay on her knee.
“Good Lord,” I muttered, and choked into silence again.
“That's it, Richard, that's common sense,” she said, squeezing my fingers. “It's all perfectly plain. As duty always is, thank the Lord. He wants a bright, active, capable wife—if he wants any. A blind old woman can't be that. She can't be, even if she had the heart. I'm a silly, Richard, for all my sour ways. Poor man, poor volatile generous creature. He's not quiet and stay-at-home, as his age should be. He's all capers, and fancies, and—and romance. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ My aunt had come, as she had gone, in a hackney cab; and, refusing any assistance from the maid who was there with her, she stepped painfully down out of it, and, tapping the ground at her feet with her ebony stick, the wintry sun glinting red upon her blue spectacles as she moved, she began to climb the flight of steps alone, with difficulty, but with a vigorous assurance. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ Do you suppose that mere cleverness watched over your cradle? Do you think mere cleverness will ever win you a wife? Would—would the Count?”
Colour once more had welled into her cheeks, and her carpet-slippered foot was thrust impatiently out from beneath her dressing-gown.
“I did not suppose you wished me to intrude,” I stammered. “You have your own reasons, I assume, for ordering me about. I assume, you had your own reasons, too, for not taking me into your confidence. I am sorry. Aunt Lucy, but I don't see what else I could have done.”
“Sit down, Richard,” she said. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ In a rather clumsy fashion, I fear, I at last proposed to the Count a walk over the Heath.
“An excellent suggestion, Richard,” said my aunt cordially. “There, Count, put on your hat, and take your stick, and walk off the steam. It's no use looking at me. I have business to attend to, so I can't come.”
But the Count was exceedingly unwilling to go. The garden held more charm for him, and better company. A faint groping uneasiness, too, showed itself in his features.
But my aunt would heed no scruples, no reluctances. “When a woman wants a man out of the way, don't you suppose. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ Am I so far in my dotage that I must be cheated like a child? Is it open with me? You shall not go. You shall not go. I'll burn the cab first. You daren't face me, Mrs. Lindsay.”
“Count, Count,” said I, “every word—the neighbours.”
“The neighbours! the neighbours!” his scorn broke over me. “Look to your own pottering milksop business, sir! Now, Mrs. Lindsay, now!”
In envious admiration I heard my aunt open her door. For an instant there was no sound in the house.
“Count,” she said, “I will just ask you to go quietly down to your study and remain there for five minutes. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ There are good things a woman can admire in a man, besides mere stubborn adoration. And the Count has most of 'em. So you see, you would have told me only what ninety-nine young men would have told me nearly as well. I think too much of you to listen to it. The hundreth for me. There, give me a kiss and go away, Richard. I wish to retire.”
My aunt rose hastily, kissed me sharply on the cheek, hurried me out of the room, and locked the door after me. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Walter De la Mare, The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (1923)

“ You've said a good many things a fellow would resent pretty warmly from—any one else. Now let me have my say too. And I can't help it if I do offend you; or if you think I'm butting in on what doesn't concern me. ”

Walter De la Mare

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Quotes from The Riddle and Other Stories — The Count's Courtship (Walter De la Mare)

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