Status Updates From A Daughter's a Daughter

‘But is it really natural to go on caring about your young once they’re grown up and out in the world? Animals don’t.’
Edith was scandalized. She said sharply: ‘Animals indeed! We’re Christian men and women. Don’t you talk nonsense, Miss Sarah. Remember the saying: A son’s a son till he gets him a wife. But A Daughter’s a Daughter all your life.’

‘I was so near happiness—so near it—’ Ann’s voice trembled with self-pity—‘and then—I had to let it all go.’
‘Had you?’ Ann paid no attention to the question.
‘I gave it all up—for Sarah!’
‘Exactly,’ said Dame Laura. ‘And you’ve never forgiven her for it, have you?’

Sarah laughed cheerfully, thinking to herself: ‘I’d forgotten how odious Cauliflower was. It’s a good thing for Mother I settled his hash.’

Laura paused. She spoke with a sudden startling energy. ‘The trouble with a sacrifice is that it’s not over and done with once it’s made! It goes on …’ Ann stared at her in surprise.

Do you know what you have always reminded me of? Those lines in Homer.’ He quoted with relish and at some length in Greek. ‘There,’ he said, beaming. ‘Thank you, Geoffrey,’ said Ann. ‘I don’t know what it means—’ ‘It means that—’ ‘No, don’t tell me. It couldn’t possibly be as nice as it sounds. What a lovely language Greek is.

Likely source?

That radiance, that happy look, could have only one meaning: Ann was in love. How unfair it was, reflected Dame Laura, that women in love looked their best and men in love looked like depressed sheep.

Really, men, when they got to forty-five, should make a vow not to tell any stories or anecdotes at all. Did they even imagine how their friends’ spirits sank when they began: ‘Don’t know whether I ever told you, but rather a curious thing happened once to—’ and so on.

‘Dangerous, these Swiss places. Fracture your arms or your legs and then not set proper. Goes to gangrene under the plaster and that’s the end of you. Awful smell, too.’
‘Well, we’ll hope that won’t happen to Sarah,’ said Ann, well used to Edith’s gloomy pronouncements, which were always uttered with considerable relish.

This book is amazing, I really cried reading it. I don’t know why I just did:)