She had been dragged in the most humiliating of all dusts, the dust reserved for older women who let themselves be approached, on amorous lines, by boys... It had all been pure vanity, all just a wish, in these waning days of hers, still to feel power, still to have the assurance of her beauty and its effects.
Elizabeth von ArnimBut it is impossible, I find, to tidy books without ending by sitting on the floor in the middle of a great untidiness and reading.
Elizabeth von ArnimI have been much afflicted again lately by visitors . . . and they gave me to understand that if they had had the arranging of the garden it would have been finished long ago - whereas I don't believe a garden is ever finished. They have all gone now, thank heaven.
Elizabeth von ArnimIt is beautiful, beautiful to give; one of the very most beautiful things in life.
Elizabeth von Arnim