#de stevenson

Robert had made friends with life, and life had been good to him. It was for her to follow his example, to follow his advice: “Make friends with life.” She had begun to see what he meant. Not to shut yourself up and grieve or dream but to go forward with your eyes wide open and accept what life offered.

Hester is fishing in Scotland with Guthrie Loudon and a child named Ian.

People are so funny, aren't they? I mean they're so interesting - and all so different. They're all so busy living their own lives (if you know what I mean) and they're all so certain that they're frightfully important.

Mr Abbot had never before read a novel about a woman who wrote a novel about a woman who wrote a novel — it was like a recurring decimal, he thought, or perhaps even more like a perspective of mirrors such as tailors use, in which the woman and her novel were reflected back and forth to infinity.

But it wouldn't be much good for a man to plan his garden, to say to himself, 'It would be nice to have hollyhocks in that corner, and lupins in front, and a trellis with sweet peas over there ... and it would be a good idea to plant stock near the sitting room window so that we can smell their sweetness on a summer evening.' No, he's got to sow his seeds and water them. He's got to keep the beds weeded and free from slugs. Life is like that, too. We need faith--just as a gardener needs faith when he plans his garden and sows his seeds--and we need work. We can all do our part to make our little patch in the garden gay with flowers. Let's plant happiness in our little patch; it has such a sweet smell on a summer evening.

... I walked along the shore and smelt the sea and watched the birds and enjoyed the peace of being alone. If I had been a poet, I might have written an ode to solitude. It would have been a good poem, for I felt convinced that nobody who has not been cooped up in a small flat with children can appreciate the bliss of being alone.

There’s nothing like being on your own and earning money, for giving a girl confidence in herself.

"Who would have thought it would turn out like this?’ enquires Mrs. Falconer blandly. ‘It reminds me of a picnic I went to when I was a child ’