β
the only way Bex would miss this would be if she were unconscious. And tied up. And in a concrete bunker. In Siberia.
β
β
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls, #3))
β
A fit, healthy bodyβthat is the best fashion statement
β
β
Jess C. Scott
β
V-Dayβ¦if you need this one day in a year to show everyone else you truly care for βyour loved oneβ I think itβs quite stupid. I hate this commercialism. Itβs all artificial, and has nothing to do with real love.
β
β
Jess C. Scott (EyeLeash: A Blog Novel)
β
My headβll explode if I continue with this escapism.
β
β
Jess C. Scott (EyeLeash: A Blog Novel)
β
Maybe you could be mine / or maybe weβll be entwined / aimless in this sexless foreplay.
β
β
Jess C. Scott (EyeLeash: A Blog Novel)
β
Please, touch me, I pray.
β
β
Jess C. Scott (The Intern)
β
When you sell a man a book you donβt sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glueβyou sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by nightβthereβs all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.
β
β
Christopher Morley (Parnassus on Wheels (Parnassus, #1))
β
I suppose itβs not a social norm, and not a manly thing to do β to feel, discuss feelings. So thatβs what Iβm giving the finger to. Social norms and stuffβ¦what good are social norms, really? I think all they do is project a limited and harmful image of people. It thus impedes a broader social acceptance of what someone, or a group of people, might actually be like.
β
β
Jess C. Scott (New Order)
β
Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.
β
β
HonorΓ© de Balzac
β
She told me later that her parents had told her to steer clear of me at school.
"My mum said that nobody really knew where you came from. And that you might be dangerous." "Why didn't you listen to her?" I asked.
"Because nobody knew where you came from, Simon! And you might be dangerous!"
"You have the worst survival instincts."
"Also, I felt sorry for you," she said. "You were holding your wand backwards.
β
β
Rainbow Rowell (Carry On (Simon Snow, #1))
β
What would friendship entail?
Well, on Wednesdays, we sacrifice a cat to Satan
β
β
Roshani Chokshi (The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1))
β
I was flipping channels, watching this cheerleading program on MTV. They took a field hockey girl and βtransformedβ her into a cheerleader by the end of the show. I was just wondering: what if she liked field hockey better?
β
β
Jess C. Scott (EyeLeash: A Blog Novel)
β
Some guys step on a rake in the dark, and get mad and go punch somebody. Others step on a rake in the dark and fall down laughing at themselves. I know which kind of guy I'd rather be. So do my friends.
β
β
Spider Robinson (Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (Callahan's, #1))
β
[novan]: bassists are very good with their fingers
[novan]: and some of us sing backup vocals, so that means we're good with our mouths too...
(~ IM chat with Novan Chang, 18, bassist)
β
β
Jess C. Scott (EyeLeash: A Blog Novel)
β
When you sell a man a book you donβt sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - thereβs all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.
β
β
Christopher Morley (Parnassus on Wheels (Parnassus, #1))
β
Wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
There's always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
"Where are you going today?" says Pooh:
"Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too.
Let's go together," says Pooh, says he.
"Let's go together," says Pooh.
β
β
A.A. Milne (Now We Are Six (Winnie-the-Pooh, #4))
β
Do you know where your breakthrough begins? Your breakthrough begins where your excuses ends.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Some of our friends are our friends only because we used to be friends.
β
β
Mokokoma Mokhonoana (The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism)
β
She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging Young Woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her -- she was only an Object of Contempt
β
β
Jane Austen (Love and Friendship and Other Early Works)
β
If you would feel comfortable going around to someone's house at the end of a long day saying, "I'm just going to take my bra off," you know you are intimate friends.
β
β
Caitlin Moran (How to Be a Woman)
β
In some rare cases, a friendship between two people benefits both of them, and whatβs more, in some rarer cases, it benefits both of them equally.
β
β
Mokokoma Mokhonoana (The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism)
β
True friends chop the onions and cry together.
β
β
Ljupka Cvetanova (The New Land)
β
You are in a melancholy humour, and fancy that any one unlike yourself must be happy. But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by every body at times, whatever be their education or state. Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience β or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.
β
β
Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility)
β
There! Now we're friends!" declared the minx. "Say you're sorry about my sister -"
"I am desolated!"
"That's a good boy!
β
β
Agatha Christie (The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot, #2))
β
If we had more reliable systems of law and governance perhaps our friendship would be shallower.
β
β
Kamila Shamsie (Kartography)
β
Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do and doing it at the right time to get the desired result. It is also the correct application of knowledge.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
He and I, we're friends. Does that sound odd? Me, friends with a pinko journalist?'
Nothing sounded odd to Lamb; except, perhaps, that people had friends.
β
β
Mick Herron (Slow Horses (Slough House, #1))
β
We never actually have serious conversations about anything for more than 20 seconds. So thereβs a beautiful superficiality to our relationship which sometimes gets covered up by all the genuine affection flowing back and forth.
β
β
Kamila Shamsie (Kartography)
β
Wait, how do most people make friends? I've only done it once. There has to be an easier way of going abouit it than getting thrown around and bleeding all over the place. But both of us went through that. So maybe...
Nosebleeds = Friendship Maybe friends are drawn to bloodsheed. You know. Like sharks.
β
β
Leah Thomas (Because You'll Never Meet Me (Because You'll Never Meet Me, #1))
β
Don't look at me like that. This is a book about a sex scandal: did you really expect me to be a nun and/or the Virgin Mary?
β
β
Laura Steven (The Exact Opposite of Okay (Izzy O'Neill, #1))
β
A man with wisdom will always have a solution no matter how big his challenges may be. Wisdom makes you a problem solver.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Sometimes he was weird, sometimes he was Captain Douchebag, but he was always my best friend.
β
β
Sharon Sant (Not of Our Sky (Sky Song trilogy #3))
β
There is a miracle in your mess, don't let the mess make you miss the miracle.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
I should explain β in view of my last letter, you may find it slightly surprising β that Daphne and I are now bosom friends. That is to say, she seems to think we are; and I do not feel that I know her well enough to dispute it.
β
β
Sarah Caudwell (The Sibyl in Her Grave (Hilary Tamar, #4))
β
Usually after a good puke you feel better right away. We hugged each other and then said good-bye and went off to opposite ends of the hall to lie down in our own rooms. There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.
β
β
Sylvia Plath
β
The more thou search, the more thou shall marvel.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
He leaned in and kissed her cheek. Just the lightest touch of lips, but it took her breath away.
"What was that for?" She said, when she could talk.
He held out his hands to the street and the town. "See, the world didnt explode. I think we can be friends
β
β
Kathryn James (Mist (Mist, #1))
β
School does not make people, it is learning that makes people great, that is why you see first class students fail and poor. The world is not ruled by those who went to school, it is ruled by those who learn everyday.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Wisdom cannot be bought from the walmart, it can only come from the Holy Spirit of God.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
And, just like that, a friendship was born, out of tragedy and humour, as they often are.
β
β
Gillian McAllister (Wrong Place Wrong Time)
β
Females and boys are the only creatures that propose others for friendship. As for the rest of us, friendship sort of just happens.
β
β
Mokokoma Mokhonoana (The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism)
β
Be careful because God's gifts alone are not able to give you joy; God's gift can only bring you joy when they are joined with your gratitude.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
All the failures in my life freed me from all my fears so that I can succeed.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Very often the test of one's allegiance to a cause or to a people is precisely the willingness to stay the course when things are boring, to run the risk of repeating an old argument just one more time, or of going one more round with a hostile or (much worse) indifferent audience. I first became involved with the Czech opposition in 1968 when it was an intoxicating and celebrated cause. Then, during the depressing 1970s and 1980s I was a member of a routine committee that tried with limited success to help the reduced forces of Czech dissent to stay nourished (and published). The most pregnant moment of that commitment was one that I managed to miss at the time: I passed an afternoon with Zdenek Mlynar, exiled former secretary of the Czech Communist Party, who in the bleak early 1950s in Moscow had formed a friendship with a young Russian militant with an evident sense of irony named Mikhail Sergeyevitch Gorbachev. In 1988 I was arrested in Prague for attending a meeting of one of Vaclav Havel's 'Charter 77' committees. That outwardly exciting experience was interesting precisely because of its almost Zen-like tedium. I had gone to Prague determined to be the first visiting writer not to make use of the name Franz Kafka, but the numbing bureaucracy got the better of me. When I asked why I was being detained, I was told that I had no need to know the reason! Totalitarianism is itself a clichΓ© (as well as a tundra of pulverizing boredom) and it forced the clichΓ© upon me in turn. I did have to mention Kafka in my eventual story. The regime fell not very much later, as I had slightly foreseen in that same piece that it would. (I had happened to notice that the young Czechs arrested with us were not at all frightened by the police, as their older mentors had been and still were, and also that the police themselves were almost fatigued by their job. This was totalitarianism practically yawning itself to death.) A couple of years after that I was overcome to be invited to an official reception in Prague, to thank those who had been consistent friends through the stultifying years of what 'The Party' had so perfectly termed 'normalization.' As with my tiny moment with Nelson Mandela, a whole historic stretch of nothingness and depression, combined with the long and deep insult of having to be pushed around by boring and mediocre people, could be at least partially canceled and annealed by one flash of humor and charm and generosity.
β
β
Christopher Hitchens (Hitch 22: A Memoir)
β
The wind was against them now, and Piglet's ears streamed behind him like banners as he fought his way along, and it seemed hours before he got them into the shelter of the Hundred Acre Wood and they stood up straight again, to listen, a little nervously, to the roaring of the gale among the treetops.
'Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?'
'Supposing it didn't,' said Pooh after careful thought.
β
β
A.A. Milne
β
Sometimes what not to do is more important than what to do. Sometimes when you are in crisis, when frustration are high or when you are under pressure, what you don't do is more important than what you do. Don't be afraid. ....
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
There are too many stars in the sky and none of them is overshadowing the other. Don't let anybody be a threat to your growth.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Even with fasting and prayers you still need wisdom. At the root of every great accomplishment is wisdom. In all your getting get wisdom first.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Tommy and Scootie locked eyes. Only minutes ago, he wouldn't have believed that he could ever have felt such a kinship with the Labrador as he felt now.
β
β
Dean Koontz (Tick Tock)
β
Probably one of those sinister organisations that lurked behind the mask of amusing acronym, such as BUM, for example - the Bermondsey Union of Minstrels. Or WILLY, the Whitechapel Institution for Long-Legged Yodellers. It could be any one of a hundred such evil cabals. With the notable exception of the Meritorious Union For Friendship, Decency, Individualism, Virtue and Educational Resources, who were above reproach.
β
β
Robert Rankin (The Educated Ape and Other Wonders of the Worlds (Japanese Devil Fish Girl #3))
β
No man's advice can change you unless you speak to yourself. Bible school or seminars can't change you, going to church can't change you except you decide to change.
Psalm 139:23 - 24
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Jake's in trouble.'
Luca rolled his eyes. 'What now?'
'He's gone off somewhere, I think I know where, and I don't think it's good.'
'Cant that boy ever stay in and watch telly like the rest of us?
β
β
Sharon Sant (Not of Our Sky (Sky Song trilogy #3))
β
If you ask me I think the greatest breakthrough each and everyone of us need is not on finance, marriage, work, relationship, own house, car but self. The first breakthrough should start from being selfish.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
The official recruiting process for their posse began. Because Carlos, Narc, and Trevor each had high SQs, Heeb and Evan reasoned that adding the three to their group would raise the average SQ of each group member (much the way that colleges recruit individuals with higher test scores to increase the average test scores of their matriculated students).
β
β
Zack Love (Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC (Back When Phones Weren't So Smart))
β
Gratitude without practicing maybe like practicing a faith without good work. A grateful heart is not enough without a grateful habit; because your joy is not produced by what you put in your heart but by habit you put in your life.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Sure we all need money but what do you really focus on? It is a matter of the heart. If your thoughts are on material and worldly things, no good fruits can come out of it.
Seek the kingdom of God first and the other things shall be added unto you not vice versa.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
What are we doing tonight, Spock?' Luca grinned at Jacob.
'Apparently, he's going to New Zealand,' Ellen replied with heavy sarcasm.
'New Zealand?'
'It's code for Outer Space.
β
β
Sharon Sant (Sky Song (Sky Song trilogy #1))
β
Jacob glanced across at the woman. 'She'd have you for breakfast, mate.'
'Yeah,' Luca countered, 'maybe I want to be had for breakfast.
β
β
Sharon Sant (The Young Moon (Sky Song trilogy #2))
β
If want to become a person with vision, get back and reconnect to your source.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
In politics no permanent friends, no permanent enemies but permanent interest.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Wisdom is the mother of solutions. You cannot upgrade in wisdom and lack solutions and you cannot have a wisdom and be stranded in any challenge you face.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
A lot of people pray for power, house, financial breakthrough, wealth etc. But only few ask God for wisdom. There are so many great power pack man and women of God who lack wisdom.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
You cannot occupy a proper place on earth without wisdom. It is the principal thing you must have.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
There is no gift of principles, you must apply them if you want to move forward.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
I swear I've good morals. It's just that bad ones befriend me. I'm a friendly person, you know. But I will talk to them. Believe you me.
β
β
Fakeer Ishavardas
β
She nibbles her pencil... She's human!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
Thy heart had gone too far in this world, and think thou to comprehend the way of the most High?
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
Even so have I given the womb of the earth to those that be sown in it in their times.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
As for you, you're unwise: how may you then speak of these things whereof thou ask you?
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
They that be born in the strength of youth are of one fashion, and they that are born in the time of age, when the womb fail, are otherwise.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
Iniquity shall be increased above that which now thou see, or that thou hast heard long ago.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
The land, that thou see now to have root, shall thou see wasted suddenly.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
Go thy way, and tell my people, the people of thy Lord God what manner of things, and how great wonders of the Lord thy God, thou hast seen.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
From the beginning, look, what thou desires to see, it shall be shew thee.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
An extreme fearfulness moves through all your body, and your mind is troubled more.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
If you can't see the assets in you, it will be hard for you to export it to the world. Recognise who you are and the world will recognise you.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
You will always end up in frustration whenever you try to produce outside your purpose.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
All my pains has always increased my sense of purpose.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Whenever you are in transition it is always important to choose the words that you use. You call it crises in your life and I call it transition.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Be careful the mistake of yesterday always lives with tomorrow.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
God is not interested in helping you finding out why you are in a mess, He is interested in fixing it.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
What you see and what you listen to will determine how high you will go.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
The forgiveness of God flows through me and because I am forgiven, I can forgive.
β
β
Patience Johnson
β
Freedom comes from focus, focus brings freedom. Focus on fear you will always be in prison, focus on faith and is nothing the world can keep you knocked down.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Weigh thou therefore their wickedness now in the balance, and theirs also that dwell the world; and so shall thy name no where be found anymore.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
Hear me, and I will instruct thee; hearken to the thing that I say, and I shall tell thee more.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
β¦the Birminghams had grown into their eccentricities over time.
β
β
S.W. Clemens (The Seal Cove Theoretical Society)
β
If negative emotions have gain access into your heart, it is because you have given it attention. If memories of pain and hurt dominates your heart, it is because you gave them attention. How can a memory hurt you when it has only happened? It can only hurt you when you give it attention.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman: For like as a woman that travails make haste to escape the necessity of the travail: even so do these places haste to deliver those things that are committed unto them.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
The greatest futility! says the congregator, "The greatest futility! Everything is futile!" What does a person gain from all his hard work- At which he toils under the sun? A generation goes and another cometh forth, but the earth remains the same.
β
β
COMPTON GAGE
β
If you want to see the beauty of any fish, throw it into the water, you will see how best it can swim because that is its source. Do you want to see the beauty in you? Don't look in the mirror, don't put on makeups, no jewelleries or expensive designer clothes, just go back and reconnect to your source and I bet, the best of you will show up. Until you return back to God, your best won't come out because He is your source.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Good morning,β she said. βAre you drunk?β
She noticed what a split second it took for him to flare into aggression. βDo I look it?β
βNo. Where is Citizen Danton?β
βIβve done away with him. Iβve been busy dismembering him for the last three hours. Would you like to help me carry his remnants down to the concierge? Oh really, Louise! Heβs in bed and asleep, where do you think he is?β
βAnd is he drunk?β
βVery. What is all this harping on intoxication?
β
β
Hilary Mantel (A Place of Greater Safety)
β
The open door is never behind you; the open door is always before you. Quit looking at your past life and mistakes. Look unto Jesus who is the Author and Perfector of our faith. Your open door is not in the opportunity you missed ten years ago, it is not in some stuffs behind you that you can't get back. You can't gain your access by giving attention to your past life.
Your past days are behind you and what God has for you is in front of you. Just pay attention.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
You can't love me if you don't love you, you can't think of nothing to do with me if you can't think of nothing to do with yourself, stop feeling sorry for yourself and tidy up, clean up the apartment until you get a house, do that job until you build your own company. Look at what you have and think on how to make it better.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
Paul remembered something he'd noticed before, which was that Tim seemed not to understand humour. It was like talking to an anthropologist from another planet. Paul thought that this should have created some kind of opening for friendship, but he couldn't imagine how that conversation would begin- 'I can't help but notice that you're as alienated as I am, can we compare notes?'.
β
β
Emily St. John Mandel (The Glass Hotel)
β
Humanity is capable of such mindless horror. We embody the worst inclinations of all living things on earth β cruelty, hubris, greed, unspeakable violence, and disregard for consequences. And then we turn around and embody the best of all living things on earth β compassion, music, art, literature, scientific inquiry, invention and great imagination. What a burden it is to be human. What a privilege.
β
β
S.W. Clemens (The Seal Cove Theoretical Society)
β
Maybe what you need in your life is not the next level of accomplishment or the next level of accumulation but the next level of appreciation for what you have; that will set the stage to make a space for what you will accumulate in the future. ( a bit deep) Simply put thank God for now before setting the goal for tomorrow because if you grow in gifts and didn't grow in gratitude, you have gained nothing.
β
β
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
β
To the enormous majority of persons who risk themselves in literature, not even the smallest measure of success can fall. They had better take to some other profession as quickly as may be, they are only making a sure thing of disappointment, only crowding the narrow gates of fortune and fame. Yet there are others to whom success, though easily within their reach, does not seem a thing to be grasped at. Of two such, the pathetic story may be read, in the Memoir of A Scotch Probationer, Mr. Thomas Davidson, who died young, an unplaced Minister of the United Presbyterian Church, in 1869. He died young, unaccepted by the world, unheard of, uncomplaining, soon after writing his latest song on the first grey hairs of the lady whom he loved. And she, Miss Alison Dunlop, died also, a year ago, leaving a little work newly published, Anent Old Edinburgh, in which is briefly told the story of her life. There can hardly be a true tale more brave and honourable, for those two were eminently qualified to shine, with a clear and modest radiance, in letters. Both had a touch of poetry, Mr. Davidson left a few genuine poems, both had humour, knowledge, patience, industry, and literary conscientiousness. No success came to them, they did not even seek it, though it was easily within the reach of their powers. Yet none can call them failures, leaving, as they did, the fragrance of honourable and uncomplaining lives, and such brief records of these as to delight, and console and encourage us all. They bequeath to us the spectacle of a real triumph far beyond the petty gains of money or of applause, the spectacle of lives made happy by literature, unvexed by notoriety, unfretted by envy. What we call success could never have yielded them so much, for the ways of authorship are dusty and stony, and the stones are only too handy for throwing at the few that, deservedly or undeservedly, make a name, and therewith about one-tenth of the wealth which is ungrudged to physicians, or barristers, or stock-brokers, or dentists, or electricians. If literature and occupation with letters were not its own reward, truly they who seem to succeed might envy those who fail. It is not wealth that they win, as fortunate men in other professions count wealth; it is not rank nor fashion that come to their call nor come to call on them. Their success is to be let dwell with their own fancies, or with the imaginations of others far greater than themselves; their success is this living in fantasy, a little remote from the hubbub and the contests of the world. At the best they will be vexed by curious eyes and idle tongues, at the best they will die not rich in this worldβs goods, yet not unconsoled by the friendships which they win among men and women whose faces they will never see. They may well be content, and thrice content, with their lot, yet it is not a lot which should provoke envy, nor be coveted by ambition.
β
β
Andrew Lang (How to Fail in Literature: A Lecture)
β
Weak and trembling from passion, Major Flint found that after a few tottering steps in the direction of Tilling he would be totally unable to get there unless fortified by some strong stimulant, and turned back to the club-house to obtain it. He always went dead-lame when beaten at golf, while Captain Puffin was lame in any circumstances, and the two, no longer on speaking terms, hobbled into the club-house, one after the other, each unconscious of the other's presence. Summoning his last remaining strength Major Flint roared for whisky, and was told that, according to regulation, he could not be served until six. There was lemonade and stone ginger-beer. You might as well have offered a man-eating tiger bread and milk. Even the threat that he would instantly resign his membership unless provided with drink produced no effect on a polite steward, and he sat down to recover as best he might with an old volume of Punch. This seemed to do him little good. His forced abstemiousness was rendered the more intolerable by the fact that Captain Puffin, hobbling in immediately afterwards, fetched from his locker a large flask of the required elixir, and proceeded to mix himself a long, strong tumblerful. After the Major's rudeness in the matter of the half-crown, it was impossible for any sailor of spirit to take the first step towards reconciliation.
Thirst is a great leveller. By the time the refreshed Puffin had penetrated half-way down his glass, the Major found it impossible to be proud and proper any longer. He hated saying he was sorry (no man more) and he wouldn't have been sorry if he had been able to get a drink. He twirled his moustache a great many times and cleared his throat--it wanted more than that to clear it--and capitulated.
"Upon my word, Puffin, I'm ashamed of myself for--ha!--for not taking my defeat better," he said. "A man's no business to let a game ruffle him."
Puffin gave his alto cackling laugh.
"Oh, that's all right, Major," he said. "I know it's awfully hard to lose like a gentleman."
He let this sink in, then added:
"Have a drink, old chap?"
Major Flint flew to his feet.
"Well, thank ye, thank ye," he said. "Now where's that soda water you offered me just now?" he shouted to the steward.
The speed and completeness of the reconciliation was in no way remarkable, for when two men quarrel whenever they meet, it follows that they make it up again with corresponding frequency, else there could be no fresh quarrels at all. This one had been a shade more acute than most, and the drop into amity again was a shade more precipitous.
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E.F. Benson
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The Major's laughter boomed out again.
"And I never kept a diary in my life!" he cried. "Why there's enough cream in this situation to make a dishful of meringues. You and I, you know, the students of Tilling! The serious-minded students who do a hard day's work when all the pretty ladies have gone to bed. Often and often has old--I mean has that fine woman, Miss Mapp, told me that I work too hard at night! Recommended me to get earlier to bed, and do my work between six and eight in the morning! Six and eight in the morning! That's a queer time of day to recommend an old campaigner to be awake at! Often she's talked to you, too, I bet my hat, about sitting up late and exhausting the nervous faculties."
Major Flint choked and laughed and inhaled tobacco smoke till he got purple in the face.
"And you sitting up one side of the street," he gasped, "pretending to be interested in Roman roads, and me on the other pulling a long face over my diaries, and neither of us with a Roman road or a diary to our names. Let's have an end to such unsociable arrangements, old friend; you lining your Roman roads and the bottle to lay the dust over to me one night, and I'll bring my diaries and my peg over to you the next. Never drink alone--one of my maxims in life--if you can find someone to drink with you. And there were you within a few yards of me all the time sitting by your old solitary self, and there was I sitting by my old solitary self, and we each thought the other a serious-minded old buffer, busy on his life-work. I'm blessed if I ever heard of two such pompous old frauds as you and I, Captain! What a sight of hypocrisy there is in the world, to be sure! No offence--mind: I'm as bad as you, and you're as bad as me, and we're both as bad as each other. But no more solitary confinement of an evening for Benjamin Flint, as long as you're agreeable.
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E.F. Benson (Miss Mapp (Lucia, #2))