Gilbert Frankau > Quotes

“Yea ! by your works are ye justified--toil unrelieved ;
Manifold labours, co-ordinate each to the sending achieved ;
Discipline, not of the feet but the soul, unremitting, unfeigned ;
Tortures unholy by flame and by maiming, known, faced, and disdained ;
Courage that suns
Only foolhardiness ; even by these, are ye worthy of your guns.”
― Gilbert Frankau

“No Galahad, he still cherished the conviction that women, with rare exceptions, were either “good” or “bad”.”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment, A Drama of Contemporary Behaviours

“The hero worship had just become obvious. He felt that he ought to be resenting it. All the same, the whiff of incense was not unsweet in his nostrils. Rather the reverse.”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment

“If I had your inhibitions”, she went on, “we’d never get anywhere. As it is we’ve dragged one truth to light. If you were in Guy’s position you mightn’t allow yourself to be divorced because you really do believe in your heart of hearts that marriage is a sacrament." Honesty made him interrupt, “I feel it ought to be”.”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment

“Only I don’t like the way he’s taken to calling me Rockingham instead of Rusty”, thought the man who loved Brigadier Wethered’s wife; and, slowing his pace — for he was nearly at his headquarters — he recalled the first time that had happened, in the big mess tent of the artillery camp near Godalming, and the last time it happened, just before they marched out for this exercise. Neither time — he remembered — had he been on duty. And at no other time— except when necessitated by duty — had they exchanged a word.”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment

“I hope you agree with your distinguished mother, Major Rockingham, that divorce has gone quite far enough already. In our class, it certainly has. According to my information nine cases out of ten among people one knows are faked. There is a certain firm of Society solicitors— according to one of my informants— which actually employs, or at any rate recommends, professional co-respondents”.
“Of which sex?” asked Geoffrey, his face serious but his foot touching Val’s under the table.
“Females! In our class, unfortunately, the idea that it is the gentlemanly thing for a husband to allow his erring wife to obtain what she is pleased to call her freedom still persists.”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment, A Drama of Contemporary Behaviours

“Colonel Sir Guy Wethered’s thoughts were still peculiar as he watched his guest open the door for his young wife. Danger had always stimulated him. And this might be danger of a new kind. “I made her marry me”, he brooded. “And I’ll damn well make her stay married to me. Whether she wants to or whether she doesn’t.” Not that there could be any real danger from Rusty. All the same…”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment, A Drama of Contemporary Behaviours

“He drew at his cigar again. Anger was ice now. Not against her. Only against Rockingham. Sooner or later he’d break Rockingham. Better not tell her that, though. Not for the moment anyway…”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment

“The new C.R.A. seemed a sound man. These people— a little dull though some of them might be— were the kind with whom one liked consorting. Socially, the army had its advantages. Once cited as co-respondent by Hawk Wethered, one would be barred from a good many of those advantages. This house, for instance, might no longer be open to one.”
― Gilbert Frankau, Royal Regiment, A Drama of Contemporary Behaviours