"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Alice in Wonderland.
Reading Elizabeth Cadell, one doesn't have to believe in impossible things happening. One is just swept along by the improbably-probable story, the charm of the characters and just the general sweetness of the atmosphere.
I own one Cadell -The Past Tense of Love which is the best I've come across so far and its something I resort to once in about every two years when the world is just too much for me to restore my smile and balance.
She wrote feel-good stories long before the word was invented. There is lots of romance, lots of rumination and lots of living. And quite a bit of wisdom. Besides lots of situations which keep you quietly smiling or worse .
This is a bit of coversation between brother and a sister he discovers, is growing up- too fast for him.
" But all I wanted to know was whether you kissed her with what Luke calls deadly intent, or whether..."
" With what Luke calls what?"
"Deadly intent. He says that even given the time and the place and the girl, a man needn’t lose his head ; he can still make a planned approach. That is, he can decide in his mind whether he wants to let the atmosphere engulf him or whether he'll keep it cool. If he really wants the girl, then he kisses her with deadly intent. Do you follow?'
" I can't say I do. Is this the kind of thing Luke always talks about?"
"How should I know? I only met him a week ago."
1 comment:
sounds good!
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