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The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3 QUOTES

The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3 QUOTES

1 " Almost under his breath he said, “First threatenings an’ now bribery. Bribery as I’m alive! Money for Judas, I reckon they’m thinking. Stand up in a court o’ law agin an old friend. Worse’n Judas, for he did it on the quiet, like. An’ for what? Thirty bits o’ silver. An’ I’m reckoning they wouldn’t "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

2 " They’d want for me to do un for twenty or ten. Tedn reasonable, tedn proper, tedn Christian, tedn right.” There was a short pause. “Ten guineas down and ten guineas after the trial,” said Garth. “Ha!” said Jud. “Just what I thought. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

3 " She was a dark young woman, a little above average in height, dressed in a close-fitting blue riding habit, a pale blue bodice, and a small tricorn hat. Connoisseurs would have disagreed as to whether she was beautiful, but few men would have passed her without a second glance. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

4 " She looked up and saw that his scrutiny had gratified him. It was one of the few comforting factors in Demelza’s excursions into society, this faculty she had of pleasing men. She did not see it yet as power, only as a buttress to faltering courage. She "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

5 " Demelza bent to examine the cow—with a professionalism of manner that came from her seven years at Nampara, not at all from her Illogan childhood. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

6 " Others have risen before her, and with fewer talents, I’d swear. She has a certain elegance already. In a few years it will be hard to tell her from a woman of breeding.” “And she came for nothing? I doubt it. To me she looks a dangerous woman. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

7 " Yes. Oh yes. I told him Caroline wanted to break the journey down here to be in Bodmin during the election, but Caroline has written him also, so it was no news. Like her to ask me to ask her uncle and then to write herself!” “She’s only a girl. Be patient with her, Unwin. You’ll need patience. She’s temperamental and wayward. And there are others will think her a good catch beside yourself. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

8 " Joshua Poldark died in March 1783. In February of that year, feeling that his tenure was becoming short, he sent for his brother from Trenwith. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

9 " The clouds broke in a shower and drove them in, and they stood a minute in the window of the parlor watching the big drops pattering on the leaves of the lilac tree, staining them dark. When rain came suddenly, Demelza still had the instinct to go see if Julia were sleeping outside. She thought of saying this to Ross but checked herself. The child’s name was hardly ever mentioned. Sometimes she suspected that Julia was a bar between them, that though he tried his utmost not to, the memory of her courting infection to help at Trenwith still rankled. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

10 " He put his arm around her. “Tut, tut. If anything happens to me you will have much still to live for. This house and land will be yours. You will become principal shareholder in Wheal Leisure Mine. You will have a duty—to people and to the countryside…” She stopped him. “Nay, Ross, I shall have nothing. I shall be a beggar again. I shall be an unfledged miner’s wench—” “You’ll be a handsome young woman in your first twenties with a small estate and a load of debts. The best of your life will be ahead of you—” “I live only through you. You made me what I am. You think me into being handsome, you think me into being a squire’s wife—” “Stuff. You’d surely marry again. If I were gone there’d be men humming around here from all over the county. It isn’t flattery but the sober truth. You could take your pick of a dozen—” “I should never marry again. Never! "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

11 " And Demelza had been the active conniver in the change, so she could not complain. Indeed, it was Verity’s elopement that had caused a sharper breach between the families, and, in spite of Demelza’s self-sacrifice of last Christmas, the breach was not properly closed. The responsibility was not now Francis’s. Since the illnesses of last Christmas and little Julia’s death he seemed most anxious to show his gratitude for what Demelza had done. But Ross would have none of it. The failure of the Carnmore Copper Company lay insuperably between them. And if what Ross suspected about that failure was right, then Demelza could not blame him. But she would have been much happier with it otherwise. Her nature always preferred the straightforward settlement to the lingering bitter suspicion. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

12 " So much had happened in their relationship since the angry scene of last August that they met like strangers, remembering the old emotions but no longer feeling them. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

13 " Ross thought, There are no permanent things, only fleeting moments of warmth and companionship, precious stationary seconds in a flicker of troubled days. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3

14 " Since the loss of Julia and the opening of the prosecution against him, he had forced himself to make this walk daily. Or if the mood took him and the weather was favorable he would go out in the new dinghy and sail as far as St. Ann’s. Such activity didn’t lift the cloud from his mind, but it helped to set it in proportion for the rest of the day’s tasks. His daughter was dead, his cousin had betrayed him, his much-labored-over smelting scheme was in ashes, he faced charges in the criminal court for which he might well be sentenced to death or life transportation, and if by some chance he survived that, it would be only a matter of months before bankruptcy and imprisonment for debt followed. But, in the meantime, fields had to be sown and reaped, copper had to be raised and marketed, Demelza had to be clothed and fed and cherished—so far as it was in his scope to cherish anyone at this stage. It was Julia’s death that still hit him hardest. Demelza had grieved no less than he, but hers was a more pliant nature, responding involuntarily to stimuli that meant little to him. A celandine flowering out of season, a litter of kittens found unexpectedly in a loft, warm sunshine after a cold spell, the smell of the first swathe of hay: these were always temporary reliefs for her, and so sorrow had less power to injure her. Although he didn’t realize it, much of the cherishing this year had been on her side. "

― Winston Graham , The Poldark Saga: Books 1 - 3