There are some things (like first love and one’s first reviews) at which a woman in her middle years does not care to look too closely.

The education bestowed on Flora Poste by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged; and when they died within a few weeks of one another during the annual epidemic of the influenza or Spanish Plague which occurred in her twentieth year, she was discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living.

There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm

Dawn crept over the Downs like a sinister white animal, followed by the snarling cries of a wind eating its way between the black boughs of the thorns. The wind was the furious voice of this sluggish animal light that was baring the dormers and mullions and scullions of Cold Comfort Farm.

There are some things (like first love and one’s first reviews) at which a woman in her middle years does not care to look too closely.

That would be delightful,' agreed Flora, thinking how nasty and boring it would be.

Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.