Home > Work > The Old Wives' Tale
1 " . . . humanity walks ever on a thin crust over terrific abysses. "
― Arnold Bennett , The Old Wives' Tale
2 " The manner of his life was of no importance. What affected her was that he had once been young. That he had grown old, and was now dead. That was all. Youth and vigour had come to that. Youth and vigour always came to that. Everything came to that. "
3 " Good clothes, when put to the test, survive a change in fortune, as a Roman arch survives the luxury of departed empire. "
4 " God is not mocked! "
5 " Yet a little while," she thought, "and I shall be lying on a bed like that! And what shall I have lived for? What is the meaning of it?" The riddle of life itself was killing her, and she seemed to drown in a sea of inexpressible sorrow. "