1
" Jerry took a large slice of wheaten bread, spread with golden butter, and bit into it with her small white teeth. It was a natural gesture - she was very hungry indeed - but to Sam, there was something symbolic about it. Jerry was like bread, he thought. She was like good wholesome wheaten bread, spread thick with honest farm butter; and the thought crossed his mind, that a man might eat bread forever and ever, and not tire of it, and it would never clog his palate like sweet cakes or pastries or chocolate éclairs. "
― D.E. Stevenson , Miss Buncle Married (Miss Buncle, #2)
4
" He put down the paper without regret, and looked at his wife, and, as he looked at her, he smiled because she was nice to look at, and because he loved her, and because she amused and interested him enormously. They had been married for nine months now, and sometimes he thought he knew her through and through, and sometimes he thought he didn’t know the first thing about her—theirs was a most satisfactory marriage. "
― D.E. Stevenson , Miss Buncle Married (Miss Buncle, #2)
8
" As she turned from him and looked at Trivona, she was assailed by a vague feeling of discomfort, for there was something very pathetic in the sleeping Trivvie. By day she was a rebel, full of the lust of life, battling for power, and yet more power, for freedom and yet more freedom; but, asleep, she was innocent, helpless, vulnerable. Barbara felt it was wrong to see Trivvie thus; it was like a treachery. Trivvie would hate to be seen without her armor on. "
― D.E. Stevenson , Miss Buncle Married (Miss Buncle, #2)
9
" No, she was not like other people. Other people took grown-up things as a matter of course—things like late dinner, and wine, driving cars and going to the theater; things like marriage and housekeeping and ordering commodities from the shops; whereas she was just playing at it all the time, pretending to be grown up, when, really and truly all the time, she was just Barbara—a plain, gawky child. She had the same body "
― D.E. Stevenson , Miss Buncle Married (Miss Buncle, #2)
13
" I mean we don’t want to leave,” said Mrs. Rast significantly, “and what’s more, if Mr. Abbott was aware that Rast and me was wedded to the neighbor’ood—so to speak—well, we ’ave bin with Mr. Abbott a long time—we knows ’is ways, you see.” Barbara did see. It was the most frightful impertinence. She and Arthur were to remain at Sunnydene to suit the Rasts. Whatever next? she thought. She was angry, but she was also frightened—how would Arthur see it? Arthur was already a trifle lukewarm about leaving Sunnydene. She saw the doors of the cage closing and she thought, I shall be here forever and ever, growing old, playing bridge, waited upon by the Rasts. I must be strong, she thought, I must be firm. I’m too Barbara Buncle-ish, that’s what’s the matter with me. And then quite suddenly her rage rose to the surface, and she wasn’t frightened anymore. "
― D.E. Stevenson , Miss Buncle Married (Miss Buncle, #2)
18
" Judged by this standard Barbara must very nearly have genius—if not quite—for her books seem to appeal to an enormous number of people in every class and every walk of life. But I shan’t worry her, he thought, I shall just leave it alone, and, if she wants to write she can write, and if she doesn’t want to, she needn’t. That’s what I said at the very beginning, and I shall stick to it. But I really hope, in a way, that she won’t want to write (thought Mr. Abbott) because this place is delightful—simply charming—and if Barbara starts writing about our neighbors, we shall most probably have to leave Wandlebury—just as she had to leave Silverstream—in a hurry. "
― D.E. Stevenson , Miss Buncle Married (Miss Buncle, #2)