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.
Stella GibbonsThere are some things (like first love and oneโs first reviews) at which a woman in her middle years does not care to look too closely.
Stella GibbonsFlora 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.
Stella GibbonsHe was, she reflected, almost rudely like a tortoise; and she was glad her friend kept none as pets or they might have suspected mockery.
Stella GibbonsHere was an occasion, she thought, for indulging in that deliberate rudeness which only persons with habitually good manners have the right to commit.
Stella GibbonsSurely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation?
Stella GibbonsDawn 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.
Stella Gibbons