Angelika

“Peaceful and lovely though his country seemed, there was nothing in it that clutched at his heart and dragged it out by the roots. He didn't belong to it, could never belong to it. He knew those picturesque cottages! It was probable that not one in five hundred possessed a bathroom, much less up-to-date plumbing or steam-heating or electric refrigeration. All this talk about "calls of the blood" was simply bunk. He had always described himself as a hundred-per-cent. American. At that moment the percentage had risen to a hundred and fifty. Probably, by the time he had got to Ludlow, it would reach two hundred.”
― Francis Brett Young, Cage Bird, And Other Stories

“her mind was full not of facts, but of glamour;”
― Francis Brett Young, Cage Bird, And Other Stories

“Fortunately, also, that very night the wolfish English summer discarded its lamb-skins.”
― Francis Brett Young, Cage Bird, And Other Stories

“Gradually a change came over Willoughby. It
showed itself first in a distinct gain of strength that overjoyed her. All his life, in the sodden midlands and in the clearer cold of Central Europe, Willoughby’s body had simply struggled for existence; whatever vitality he possessed had been poured out daily to nourish the pale, exotic flower of his music. In this blander climate, like a starved plant that rejoices in a genial soil, the musician became a man.”
― Francis Brett Young, Cage Bird, And Other Stories