Oscar And Lucinda Quotes
"If there was a bishop, my mother would have him to tea."
"They would look at a Victorian clergyman. They would see the ramrod back, the tight lips, the pinched nose."
"My father made jokes about many things, but never about this."
"My father did not get drunk, but once, after drinking two beers, he told me that my mother walked around the perimeter of St John’s like a dog pissing around a fence."
"I used it," my mother said, "to make the Advent wreath."
"His father was quite specific. It was his character to be specific."
"Oscar was fourteen, an age when boys are secretive and sullen."
"The Bible said a beast had four faces, or a man the teeth of a lion, then this is what they believed."
"Oscar had a little wooden tray, divided into small compartments."
"He looked at her then. She did not understand the look she saw."
"Oscar was afraid of the sea. It smelt of death to him."
"His father’s hair was black, singed with silver fire."
"He sat upright. He brought his hands together and rubbed them hard as he spoke."
"He carried his fear coiled and tangled in him like other boys carry twine and string in their crumb-filled pockets."
"Dear God," he said loudly, "if it is your desire that your flock eat pudding in celebration of Thy birth as man, then show Thy humble supplicant a sign."
"He was pleased not to be greeted, to be "not seen" on Christmas Day."
"It was the books, or the propensity for books that does it."
"She sought for an absolute and could not find it."
"He could not allow himself to love his papa."
"He promised God he would go before Good Friday."
"He was fifteen years old, nearly sixteen. His feet were tight inside his boots."
""One more for dinner, Mrs Millar," he said. He could not help himself. He smirked."
"It was the smell of custard, however, that intervened."
"He laid them side by side, along the borders of the dinner plate."
"All the muscles in his narrow chest were tight."
"Books, papers, newspapers, leaned and tottered all around him."
"Oscar felt himself choking on regret and melancholy."
"He placed the raisins across the pagans' faces."
"You do not stop being one of the Plymouth Brethren in five minutes."
"He knew an altar was a place where heathen sacrifice was made."
"The boy moved a raisin sideways on the rim of his plate."
"He was the object of his papa's care and love."
"It was he who lifted the scales from my papa's eyes."
"I like the blacks better than the Mayor of Parramatta."
"I have spent sixteen years ruining my complexion."
"She is so happy that I am, often, irritated."
"She could not imagine how anyone with warm blood in their veins could feel at home amongst the cool and polished distances in first class."
"She considered, once again, transferring her baggage down to a second-class cabin, but faced with the bored and supercilious expressions of the stewards, did not have the energy."
"The younger woman of the party arranged herself (carefully, for she was fashionably dressed) on a velvet sofa, pressed her hands to her eyes, then looked up."
"Lucinda saw her smile, and returned it, not understanding that what she had thought was a smile was in reality a grimace."
"It is not enough she does not like it, because the Church of England has it written into the prayer book and it will take more than the Queen, more than our Lord—it will take an Act of Parliament—to get it out again."
"I would put my capital into something that I loved very much."
"I would advise someone with capital in accordance with what I understand the parable of the talents instructs us to."
"I would invest in something from which I would derive innate pleasure."
"I have a phobia about the ocean. It is something I have suffered from since very young."
"This is not known to Mr Smith or Mr Borrodaile."
"But I owe you an apology for not answering your call to confession when, as you see, I was capable of coming all the time."
"I suppose I must face up to facts—my disguise is done for."
"She felt the perfect coldness known to climbers."
"She was not lonely, and she was not frightened or shy."
"She felt herself to be beyond salvation and did not care."
"It was frightening out here on Longnose Point."
"She was both enchanted and appalled by his innocence."
"They did not gamble or take hazards of any type."
"She thought him an 'old woman,' a 'kind soul,' 'odd fellow.'"
"He was, in his conversation, so elliptical, so tangential."
"God, who saw all things, would not find their conduct unbecoming."
"She pointed out an ibis to Oscar as it rose from the mangroves."
"Lucinda might sneak from her own house at midnight to place a wager."
"Once she said: 'I wish I had ten sisters and a big kitchen to laugh in.'"
"Her true ambition...was to build something Extraordinary and Fine from glass and cast-iron."
"The light refracted through the glass construction...like the contents of a casket in a children's story."
"He fetched the chair...when he lifted it, the back separated from the seat."
"He dried the tears with an affection, a particularity, that had never been exercised before."
"She felt a pleasant prickling along the back of her neck."
"She thought: I am in love. How extraordinary."
"She felt guilty, just the same, about keeping the secret from him."
"She accepted the glistening fluid...as the exact equivalent of a kiss."
"She thought: They hate me, and it is not only the men."
"Oscar saw the tumescent top lip and understood her intention."
"If he delayed the matter further all courage would depart him."
"He did not wish to take advantage of a situation where a Christian and gentlemanly act would so benefit his personal desires."
"He offered to marry her to 'save your reputation in Balmain.'"
"She wept, bitterly, an ugly sound punctuated by great gulps."
"He brought a packet of Eleme raisins for Lucinda and a brass compass for Oscar."
"He was compact and good-looking with a great deal of lustrous black hair."
"He had the trick of holding your eyes—no matter where his obsessive mind was really dwelling."
"He was capable of charm when there was sufficient reason for it."
"He thought his own speech had 'put them off.'"
"I will tell you, my situation is that I am employed."
"He smiled and tugged at his moustache and seemed to be debating."
"Lucinda sat on the edge of what was normally 'Mrs Burrows’s chair'."
"Fine graphite lines, soft crinkly yellow tissue paper."
"Soon he would have to walk beside the wagons."
"Lucinda tried to hold her anger in its place."
"An artist cannot be constrained by blacksmiths."
"I tender no fee, merely the pleasure of doing the job well."
"There are circumstances where it is called folly to be wise."
"It is like thrusting your bare hand into a beehive."
"He felt Satan take his soul like an overripe peach."
"They wedged themselves together against the door jamb."
"Wardley-Fish looked up and saw, not twenty yards beyond the pilot boat, a whole series of barges being towed off the wharf."
"He vowed to God that he would henceforth forswear not only cards and alcohol but also smutty talk."
"Wardley-Fish was a big man and built like a sturdy pottery jug."
"He promised God he would henceforth behave as both a Christian and a gentleman."
"The barges were being pulled out across the water by a little steamboat."
"You will pretend to pour. I will pretend to drink."
"No," said Oscar. The back of his head was jammed hard against the buckle of Mr Smith’s crossed white braces.
"I would not do this to you," said Percy Smith, "for anything."
"And then he poured the muck into the funnel."