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Eva Ibbotson QUOTES

Eva Ibbotson QUOTES

121 " She made life… big for me "

― Eva Ibbotson , The Morning Gift

122 " It’s impossible. It’s madness.”
There was a long pause.
“Or is it?” the old man said. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

123 " There is a saying that the landscape in which a child spends the first seven years of its life will leave a mark it cannot escape. A child brought up by the sea will always carry a longing for the ocean; a town child, reared to the sound of traffic and the warm bustle of neighbours, will never quite settle in the silence of the countryside. "

― Eva Ibbotson , The Dragonfly Pool

124 " Right,” she said. “Come down off that chair. I think we are ready for the next step.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am going to see Mrs. Carter tomorrow. I shall tell her that you are not able to keep up with the twins in lessons.”
“But--”
Miss Minton held up her hand. “Don’t interrupt, please. I shall tell her that I will set you to work separately because you are holding the twins back. That means I am trusting you to work on your own. I shall, of course, help you whenever I can, but you must keep up the deception.” She gave one of her tight smiles. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t have an interesting time. I have a book about the history of Brazil, and one by Bates, the explorer who first described this part of the Amazon. And another by Humboldt--a very great scientist. The twins may live as though they are still in Littleford-on-Sea, but there is no need for us to do so.”
Maia jumped from the chair. “Oh, Minty,” she said, and threw her arms around her governess. “Thank you. I’m sorry…I thought--”
“Well don’t,” said Miss Minton briskly. And then: “Come along, it’s time we opened my trunk.”
Miss Minton had been poor all her life. She had no trinkets, no personal possessions; her employers underpaid her when they paid her at all--but her trunk was an Aladdin’s cave. There were travel books and fairy tales, novels and dictionaries and collections of poetry…
“How did you get them all?” Maia asked wonderingly. “How did you manage?”
Miss Minton shrugged.
“If you want something enough you usually get it. But you have to take what goes with it”--and she pointed to her shabby blouse and mended skirt. “Now, let’s see---what shall we start with? Ah yes, here is Bates. He must have sailed down this very river not sixty years ago. Look at that drawing of a sloth… "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

125 " How did you know? How did you know who I was as soon as you saw me come out of the trapdoor in the museum?”
“You’re so like your father. The eyes, the way your voice is pitched. He wasn’t much older than you are now when he ran away from Westwood. And I knew he’d married an Indian woman and had a son; we kept in touch. So when I saw that the crows had caught you, I realized your plan had gone wrong.”
“You mean you knew what we were planning?” said Maia--not at all pleased.
“More or less. Your acting skills are not very great,” said Miss Minton, “And as a liar you are bottom of the class. I made friends with old Lila, and when she realized that I knew Bernard, she told me about this place. But you seemed to know what you were doing, so I left you to it.”
“We did know what we were doing,” said Finn. “But Clovis just went berserk when he got down to the cellar. Some skulls came tumbling out of a packing case, and he saw these eye sockets staring at him. Then he fell over a throwing spear and the lamp kept going out. There was a weird moaning noise, too--it was only the water pipes--but he got hysterical and said he felt sick and he couldn’t go through with it. I suppose it was sort of stage fright--he really thought the crows were going to hurt him. I’d promised Maia I wouldn’t let him get too scared, so I stayed. I meant to make a dash for it when the crows opened the door and lead them away from him. When the sloth fell over he thought it was a bomb!”
“Poor Clovis,” said Maia.
“She’s always sticking up for him,” said Finn.
“Still, he gave a fine performance at the end, you must admit,” said Miss Minton. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

126 " Colonel da Silva was particularly upset. All the trouble he had taken to lead the crows astray had come to nothing. He felt he had failed his old friend Bernard, and he was going to miss Finn.
“I’d better go and see what’s to be done about the Arabella,” he said to his second-in-command. “And all Taverner’s things. The dog’ll go wild, I imagine; he can fend for himself.” He sighed. “I’ll go next week--the Indians will see that no one steals anything. And if those wretched Carter twins come again to ask about the reward, send them away with a flea in their ear. The boy hasn’t been gone three days. Nasty, moneygrubbing little worms!”
And he turned aside and spat out of the window, a thing he hadn’t done since he was a young cadet and thought spitting was the thing to do. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

127 " And then, because they were both Englishwomen and their hearts were somewhat broken, they turned back into the room and put on the kettle and made themselves a cup of tea. "

― Eva Ibbotson , A Song for Summer

128 " There’s no point in waiting any longer,” said Finn. “The boat is as ready as she’ll ever be. If we clear the reeds away, she’ll just get through.”
We, thought Maia bitterly. Obviously he expected her to help him clear the passage out of the lagoon, and then he’d wave good-bye and she’d never see him again.
“If it had been the other way round, I’d have taken you,” she said.
“I suppose you think that makes it easier for me,” said Finn angrily.
“I wasn’t trying to make it easier for you,” said Maia, and stalked away. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

129 " One afternoon when the children were on their own, they saw that the macaws on the tree that guarded the entrance had flown up, squawking.
But it was not Furo come to fetch Maia. It was Colonel da Silva with his second-in-command, come to take charge of Bernard Taverner’s posessions.
“Dios!” he said, paddling up to the hut. “What is this?”
So Finn explained, and when he had finished the colonel was laughing so much he looked as if he was going to fall into the water. The idea of the crows bringing a penniless actor to Westwood was the best thing he had heard in ages. “And you, senhorita,” he said to Maia. “A heroine no less. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

130 " The braver a man is - and Krok had been very brave - the less he will bully little creatures who cannot defend themselves. "

― Eva Ibbotson

131 " By midday the Xanti were usually asleep again in their hammocks or under the trees, and Maia and Finn would wander off to a cool part of the riverbank, keeping a wary lookout for Miss Minton, who might suddenly decide they should do some mental arithmetic or Latin verbs.
“You know I told you what my father said you had to do--‘seize the day,’” said Maia. “Well, it seems to me there’s no point in doing that here. You don’t have to seize it. They give you the day. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

132 " The comical dusky down that had covered Anna’s head in early childhood had become a waist-length mantle, its rich darkness shot through like watered silk with chestnut, indigo, and bronze. “Over my dead body will you cut your hair. "

― Eva Ibbotson , A Countess Below Stairs

133 " Then came the day Maia had dreaded. The last of the provisions were loaded onto the Arabella--manioc flour and dried beans and oil for the Primus stove and gifts for the Indians.
That night Finn came to say good-bye to Furo and the others.
“You’re to look after Maia,” he told them. “Promise me you will not let any harm come to her.”
And Furo, who had been sulking because he, too, wanted to go with Finn, gave his promise, as did Tapi and Conchita. Only old Lila was inconsolable, weeping and rocking back and forth and declaring that she would be dead before he returned.
Watching from her window, Maia saw him come out of Lila’s hurt, and for a moment she thought he was going to leave without saying good-bye. Then he walked across the compound and stood under her window and she heard him whistle the tune that he had whistled on the night she came.

Blow the wind southerly, southerly, southerly,
Blow the wind south o’er the bonny blue sea…

She ran outside then and hugged him and wished him luck, and she did not cry.
“You’re not to spoil it for him,” Minty had said, and she didn’t.
But when he had gone, she stood for a long time by the window, trying to remember the words of the song. It was a song begging the wind to bring back someone who had gone away in a ship, but she did not think it ended happily.
Well, why should it? Why should the wind care if she never saw Finn again? "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

134 " Clovis then asked what had happened to the head of the man who was strangling a snake and Sir Aubrey said that Dudley had blasted it with a shotgun.
“He was after some poachers,” he said, and fell silent, looking very sad. “Splendid chap, Dudley. Ask anyone.”
Clovis said that he had heard from his father how strong Dudley was, and tried to think if he had heard anything nice about Dudley, but he hadn’t. Fortunately, since Sir Aubrey was looking very upset, the butler announced Mrs. Smith and her three older daughters. The youngest daughter, Prudence, was still in nappies and did not go out to dinner.
Again Clovis had no difficulty in recognizing Mrs. Smith as the Basher, and her daughters as the ones who were no use to Sir Aubrey because they were the wrong sex.
“How do you do, Aunt Joan,” said Clovis, smiling winningly and hoping that the Basher had settled down since her marriage.
“Well, you led us quite a dance,” brayed Joan, and introduced her daughters. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

135 " As for the little banshees, when they returned home they, too, were satisfied.
“I wouldn’t mind marrying him,” said the eldest, Hope.
“I wouldn’t either,” said Faith.
“Nor me,” said Charity. “I w-wouldn’t…mind, too.”
Then they sighed. “Mother will tell us which one it’s going to be,” said Hope. “As long as it’s not Prudence.”
Prudence was still in nappies and far too small to be in the running, but she had curls and a dimple and her sisters hated her.
As for Clovis, he lay freshly bathed in a linen nightshirt between cool and spotless sheets. No mosquito netting, no flypaper, no beetles…yes, he would definitely hold out for at least a week. He had promised Finn and he would do it.
But Sir Aubrey was not yet in bed. He had limped up to the Picture Gallery at the top of the house and stood for a long time looking at the portrait of Alwin Taverner in his naval uniform.
Really, the likeness was extraordinary! The nose, the eyes, the mouth, the way his hair fell over his forehead--all of it was the same as in the boy who had come today.
It happened sometimes that a likeness skipped a few generations and then showed up stronger than ever, thought Sir Aubrey. That was the amazing thing about The Blood. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

136 " You wouldn’t believe what that would fetch. Of course the really valuable ones are the doubles, but they’re rare.”
“You mean two eyes from the same person? From someone who’s lost both eyes?”
Mr. Carter nodded. “I’ve got three pairs and they’re worth more than the rest put together.” He put out a hand toward a blue velvet box, then changed his mind. The doubles were too valuable to show a child. “I tell you,” said Mr. Carter, “if this house went up in flames, it’s my collection I’d save.”
“After you’d saved your wife and the twins,” said Maia.
He looked up sharply. “Eh? Yes. Yes, of course--that goes without saying. Now, what was it you wanted?”
“Miss Minton wondered whether you might have a map or a chart of the country round the house. It’s just to borrow for a little while.”
Mr. Carter sighed, but he got up and began to rummage in a number of drawers. “Here you are,” he said, returning with a rolled-up chart. “It covers ten square miles behind the house. Bring it back.”
Maia thanked him and left. She had never seen such a sad room or such a sad hobby. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

137 " No.” She waited, holding back with an innate sense of drama while they floundered hopelessly among lesser materials and commonplace outfits. "

― Eva Ibbotson , A Countess Below Stairs

138 " She smiled, her face tender in the lamplight. “I wish you had known him. He could make just being alive seem like an act of triumph. People used to smile when they saw him coming… he made everything all right. "

― Eva Ibbotson , A Countess Below Stairs

139 " Because Maia now had lunch with the Haltmanns after her music lesson, Miss Minton lunched with the professor in the little café he had shown her. But being friends did not mean blabbing out one’s troubles, and Miss Minton was slow to share with the professor her anxieties about Maia. It was only when he particularly asked about her that she said, “I’m not happy about the way things are going at the Carters. The twins are bullying Maia more openly now and their mother seems to live in a fantasy world. She talks to the portrait of Lady Parsons and sometimes I’m afraid she--”
But Miss Minton stopped there, not liking to admit that her employer was possibly losing her mind. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea

140 " They were to meet the Carters at the theater box office at four o’clock. As they crossed the square with its tall brass lamps and flowering trees, Maia was more and more awed.
“Imagine Clovis acting there…” she said. “It’s a really famous place, isn’t it?”
Miss Minton nodded. “Pavlova danced there,” she said. “And Sarah Bernhardt came to act; she was seventy years old, but she played Napoleon’s young son and she was a sensation!”
“Goodness!” Maia was impressed. If a woman of seventy could act Napoleon’s son, then surely Clovis could manage Little Lord Fauntleroy. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea