Appearance and reputation

Quote

Section

“The Queen herself held up; the Queen herself unable to pass.”

2

“Let rumour accumulate in their veins and thrill the nerves in their thighs at the thought of Royalty looking at them; the Queen bowing; the Prince saluting.”

2

“But they beckoned; leaves were alive; trees were alive. And the leaves being connected by millions of fibres with Septimus’ own body.”

2

“Away and away the aeroplane shot, till it was nothing but a bright spark; an aspiration; a concentration; a symbol.”

2

“It was Clarissa one remembered. Not that she was striking; not beautiful at all; there was nothing picturesque about her; she never said anything specially clever; there she was, however; there she was.”

6

“[Clarissa] frittered her time away, lunching, dining, giving these incessant parties of hers, talking nonsense, sayings things she didn’t mean, blunting the edge of her mind, losing her discrimination.”

6

“[Peter] had come back, battered, unsuccessful, to their secure shores. But to help him, they reflected, was impossible; there was some flaw in his character.”

8

“Did it matter, did it matter in the least, one Prime Minister more or less?”

12

“One couldn’t laugh at [the Prime Minister]. He looked so ordinary.”

12

“But age had brushed [Clarissa]; even as a mermaid might behold in her glass the setting sun on some very clear evening over the waves.”

12