Quotes from Elizabeth Darrell

The army which only eleven years before had brought an ignominious end to the war against the Boers was disastrously under-manned, and called for volunteers. Young men flocked to the colours in droves, as they always had, fired with the spirit of adventure and mistaking it for patriotism.

Ah, medals," put in Monty disparagingly. "Medals are given to men who happen to be in the right place at the right time, that is all.

This war has made a mockery of the arrogant fools we were. Our brother's life ended in a second; my own hung in the balance. And from what we have all heard, you have diced with death on a number of occasions." He held out his hand, saying, "I no longer have the stomach for finer feelings that are affronted by nothing at all, have you?

For Mary there would be no looking back when they set sail from India. Out there beyond the sea lay a whole lifetime of discovery for a girl who had once believed the world no more than a washtub and twenty pairs of cotton drawers a day.

When Robert brought to the table a covered plate and lifted the lid with an excited flourish, Tim played second fiddle to a cake for the first time in his life.

Every soldier knew that courage and foolhardiness were close companions in some situations,

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

The women never complained to the officers. It was not that they were afraid of them — quite the reverse, in fact. But their husbands cut up rough with them if they caused trouble. A tough trooper could manfully endure flogging, but wept tears of humiliation if he were lashed by an officer's tongue over something his wife had done.

Mary nevertheless marvelled at another otherwise strong man being reduced by a pretty woman. What was there about the male character that could produce great strength of personality, yet equally great weakness when it came to females?

longed to change herself — not to earn the approval of her betters, but to satisfy her longings for a sight of what lay beyond the present confines of her life. She was not silly enough to dream of becoming a lady. A girl did not become a lady, she was born to be one. But Mary did hope most fervently to own two dresses, a bed, a place she could go to and be alone, and to be able to read a whole book without difficulty.

the final corner, when all three

a place she could go to and be alone,

When the flaming pieces descended, those that fell on other buildings set them aflame also, so that the whole surrounding area soon resembled a suburb of hell,