Susan in NC’s Reviews > John Caldigate > Status Update

“There will arrive on occasions a certain pitch of intimacy,—which cannot be defined…but which is perfectly understood by the persons concerned;—so close as to forbid such mere shaking of the hands.There are many men, and perhaps more women, cautious enough and wise enough…to guard themselves from the dangerous attractions of casual companions by a composed manner and unenthusiastic conversation.”

“… Things do come back to men.' 'Why more than to women?' 'You have a resurrection;—I mean here upon earth. We never have. Though we live as long as you, the pleasure-seeking years of our lives are much shorter. We burst out into full flowering early in our spring, but long before the summer is over, we are no more than huddled leaves and thick stalks.'”

“There is no peculiar life more thoroughly apart from life in general, more unlike our usual life, more completely a life of itself, governed by its own rules and having its own roughnesses and amenities, than life on board ship.”