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A Winter Away QUOTES

A Winter Away QUOTES

1 " To Miss Conway this was a challenge. Things which were somewhere had been stored by herself and could be located, but things which Alice had put in a safe place were often lost forever; the safeness of the place seemed to absolve her from the necessity of remembring where it was. "

― Elizabeth Fair , A Winter Away

2 " Mrs. Woodfidley was inviting the guests to assemble for drinks, which were being handed out by Mr. Woodfidley and Garson from a long table in the bay window. The bottles and glasses had been visible from the first and their serried ranks must have drawn longing glances from more persons than herself - it would have been so much easier to sing and talk if even a single drink had been given one at the start of the party. But now she had guessed that the party was organized in set figures, like a formal country dance, and that the delay in serving drinks must be due to this plan. The figure in which drinks were consumed had just begun; it would succeeded by another after a fixed interval of time, and therefore she had better make sure of a drink before the music changed. "

― Elizabeth Fair , A Winter Away

3 " That girl's still here," old M . said, as if he were reading her thoughts.
"Yes, I know."
"She's been here a month. I told Hat she could come here for Christmas and now she says she can't afford to go home. Doesn't want to, I expect, for she says it's all ruins and Russians and her mother's dead and I don't know what. Boo-hoo and all that, when I mention it. Can't get much out of her."
Maud wondered how he got anything, since he and Who's-it spoke different languages. "Well, why not let her stay?" she suggested.
"Stay! Stay here? My dear Maud, think what she eats. This place isn't an orphanage..."
Old M. rumbled on, and when he had finished she said calmly, "You'd have to pay her, of course. She has a permit to work in England and she wants to stay, and I think..."
"Pay her! Do you think I'm made of money?"
"No. But I think you can afford to pay Who's-it, and you must remember that she'd be a wonderful bargain. She works far harder than the others. She'd be like two housemaids for the price of one."
It was hard for old M. to resist a wonderful bargain, and perhaps like Oliver he had noticed the hot bath-water and the other improvements Who's-it had brought about... "

― Elizabeth Fair , A Winter Away