“ Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch. ”
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814). copy citation
| Author | Jane Austen |
|---|---|
| Source | Mansfield Park |
| Topic | time watch speed |
| Date | 1814 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/141/141-h/141-h.htm |
Context
“I know nothing of your furlongs, but I am sure it is a very long wood, and that we have been winding in and out ever since we came into it; and therefore, when I say that we have walked a mile in it, I must speak within compass.»
«We have been exactly a quarter of an hour here,» said Edmund, taking out his watch. «Do you think we are walking four miles an hour?»
«Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.»
A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk they had been talking of; and standing back, well shaded and sheltered, and looking over a ha-ha into the park, was a comfortable-sized bench, on which they all sat down.” source
«We have been exactly a quarter of an hour here,» said Edmund, taking out his watch. «Do you think we are walking four miles an hour?»
«Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.»
A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk they had been talking of; and standing back, well shaded and sheltered, and looking over a ha-ha into the park, was a comfortable-sized bench, on which they all sat down.” source
Meaning and analysis
