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61 " He had thought of her poise as being that of a woman of experience, and been a little afraid of it, he saw it now as the self-confidence of a girl whose adolescent pride had never been shattered. And now it had been shattered, by humble old Harriet of all people, and they could start again together.... "
― Elizabeth Goudge , The Rosemary Tree
62 " My dear, you married a restless creature," she said. "One of those inwardly discontented creatures who wherever they are would like to be somewhere else, and whatever they do think they might have got what they wanted of they'd done the other thing. It's just sheer pride. They don't even know what they want, but such is their opinion of their own desserts that when they are given a life as near perfection as one can have in this world they are not satisfied even with that.""Are you describing yourself, Daphne?" asked her astonished husband."Yes, John. I've been converted to the idea that I'm a lucky woman. It's not a sudden conversion so there's hope it may last. "
63 " I'd been thinking that not only colors are imprisoned on grey days but the sun too. For when there's a grey wall between one and the other who's to say which is prisoner and which is free? When the heart aches one for the other there's little to choose between them. That's a cruel thing men do to God, making a prisoner of Him.""I don't think I know what you mean," said Michael."The grey clouds, they are like men's unbelief," said Harriet. "And men live frozen and afraid when a touch of the sun would change all that. But they imprison the sun.""Many who would like to believe, can't, Harriet," said Michael."That's a lie," said Harriet calmly. "If you want a good thing badly enough you get it. Not overnight, maybe. But you get it."Michael looked at the old woman keenly . . . she had power . . . . He began to understand what immense concentration of power there can be in a life withdrawn if discipline can keep pace with withdrawal. Without discipline withdrawal was a disintegration, but with it what he felt in Harriet. This spring day was a festival day, a day for rejoicing in new warmth and new life for several people. How much that had to do with Harriet's refusal to imprison the sun, with one soul's power to dispel the clouds for another, he'd no idea. "
64 " Living as she did in a state of perpetual nervous exhaustion, always driving herself beyond her strength lest the tasks of home and parish accumulate beyond her ability to cope with with them, afraid to relax lest she collapse altogether, she had largely lost the power of wonder, and with it the power of looking at familiar things with fresh appreciation. "