Mistress Masham's Repose Quotes

“It is literally true that this cook had a bicycle in the basement corridor, which she used to ride along the corridor, when she had to answer the bell.”

“It is difficult but important to believe that this precious pair may have been trying to do the best they could, considering the kind of people they were.”

“There, perhaps, the Mistress Hill who was to become Mistress Masham- or even Mistress Morley herself, had sat in silks and laces, in the summer weather, drinking tay.”

“Her happiest times were when the Vicar was in London and Miss Brown was in bed with a headache. Then she would be mad with pleasure, a sort of wild but earnest puppy rushing about with the slipper of her imagination, tearing the heart out of it.”

″...on the island, there was a plastered temple in the shape of a cupola, or rather, to give it its proper name, of a monopteron. It was a dome like the top of an eggshell, raised on five slender columns, and it was called Mistress Masham’s Repose.”

″...the strange thing was that everything was neat. She looked everywhere, but not a soul was to be seen. Not a leaf stirred in the little amphitheater, nor was there any trace of a hut to live in. There was no shed to hold a lawn mower, nor any mower standing on the lawn. Yet somebody had mowed the lawn.”

″...people must not tyrannize, nor try to be great because they are little.”

″‘If you meant that you have come for breakfast, I fear that I have nothing left but half a pound of mustard.’ She put her hand on the bottle-green sleeve and made him drop the bag. The reference to breakfast had touched her, for she knew he seldom had enough to eat.”

“My dear, you are a great person yourself, in any case, and you do not need to lord it over others, in order to prove your greatness.”

“Several walnuts grew in the park, though none were very close. She went to look at the shell- but looked with great astonishment. There was a baby in it.”

“Maria was not the kind of person who bore malice for injuries, and she was certainly not the kind of kidnapper who habitually stole babies from their heartbroken mothers, for the mere cynical pleasure of hearing them scream.”

“Cook, if you are ever captured by pirates, or surrounded by Indians, or if you should fall into the sea and be chased by a shark, I will see to it that this day’s work is not forgotten, if it costs me the last drop of my blood.”