The power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implications of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern . . . this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience.

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

I have in my own fashion learned the lesson that life is effort, unremittingly repeated.

A solitary maple on a woodside flames in single scarlet, recalls nothing so much as the daughter of a noble house dressed for a fancy ball, with the whole family gathered around to admire her before she goes.

Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box.

She was a woman who, between courses, could be graceful with her elbows on the table.

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance.