A Room with a View

Any one can find places, but the finding of people is a gift from God.

don't mean by that that he has bad manners--and he will not keep his opinions to himself

I was hoping that he was nice; I do so always hope that people will be nice."

Not that, but the con­grat­u­la­tions. It is so dis­gust­ing, the way an en­gage­ment is re­garded as pub­lic prop­erty—a kind of waste place where every out­sider may shoot his vul­gar sen­ti­ment.

It might be pos­sible to be nice to her; it was im­possible to love her.

Their mis­sion was to in­spire oth­ers to achieve­ment rather than to achieve them­selves. In­dir­ectly, by means of tact and a spot­less name, a lady could ac­com­plish much. But if she rushed into the fray her­self she would be first cen­sured, then des­pised, and fi­nally ig­nored.

They pry every­where, they see everything, and they know what we want be­fore we know it ourselves. We are at their mercy. They read our thoughts, they fore­tell our de­sires. From the cab­driver down to—to Gi­otto, they turn us in­side o

an­other day, when the whole world was singing and the air ran into the mouth, like wine, she would re­fuse to stir from the draw­ing-room, say­ing that she was an old thing, and no fit com­pan­ion for a hearty girl.

The ex­ped­i­tion was typ­ical of Miss Bart­lett, who would re­turn cold, tired, hungry, and an­gelic, with a ruined skirt, a pulpy Baedeker, and a tick­ling cough in her throat.

Indeed, he no longer alarmed her at all; she re­garded him as a kind thing, but quite silly.