Quotes from Miss Read

Well," said Anthony at last, "it's no good harking back, Charles. We have to go forward, you know. And with hope.

galvanized iron

When I was a schoolboy,' he said, more calmly, 'we had a prayer about being careful not to mistake bluntness for frankness, and obstinacy, I think it was, for constancy. You know, Percy, I have always respected your principles, but you must face the fact that we all have to make compromises in this life if we are to live amicably together. All I am doing is to show you how willing we are to settle things for the best. Even hares and hounds have to shake down in the same world.

Head up, back like a ramrod, Dotty faced her solicitor. Tears were coursing down her papery old cheeks and splashing unchecked upon the fur coat. But, through the tears, Dotty's expression was one of utter triumph.

In this brief pause between activities, she suddenly became conscious of living completely in the present. It came but rarely. One was either looking back anxiously wondering which duties had been left undone, or forward to those duties which lay before one.

No matter how long their partings, on meeting they fell together as sweetly as two halves of an apple. Now in old age, the warm friendship had an added quality, for the knowledge that it must end before long quickened their love for each other.

Life could never be quite as sweet again. A vital part of her had died, it seemed, with Arnold's going; a part which beauty, work or the love of friends could not replace. But from these sources came a measure of comfort for which she was humbly grateful. She learnt, at this time, the invaluable lesson of find happiness in little things, and by picking up small crumbs of comfort as she went about her daily work nursed her damaged spirit back to health.

She could only pass on to them the philosophy which sustained her throughout her life. She could teach them to face whatever came with calmness and courage, to love their families and their friends with unswerving loyalty, and to relish the lovely face of the countryside in which they lived. It might seem a humdrum, day-to-day set of values, but Dolly Clare knew from long experience that they could carry a man bravely through a lifetime's vicissitudes.

When one is alone one is receptive - a ready vessel for the sights, the scents and sounds which pour in through relaxed and animated senses to refresh the inner man.

My old ma used to say: Do what's to hand and the Lord will look after the rest.