Julie G’s Reviews > My Cousin Rachel > Status Update

My mare was very fresh, and nervous as a fawn; starting at nothing, she pricked and shied, and backed into the hedgerows, and the tearing wind did its worst to both of us.

The hedgerows were green, and the willows were in bud, and all the honeyed mass of golden gorse in bloom. It was a day for folly and high fever.

"At half-past eight on the last morning of September I am not a woman; I am a gardener."

"I love the stillness of a room after a party."

I thought how swiftly men, especially men-servants, became fools when in the presence of a woman.

There is nothing so defeating to ease of manner as being uncomfortably seated, and I wondered what sort of figure I must cut, hunched there in the damnable little chair, with my large feet tucked awkwardly beneath it and my long arms hanging down on either side of it.

Friday came all too soon. A moody, fitful sort of day, with gusts of wind. We often had them thus, the third week in September with the big tides of the year. The clouds were low, scudding across the sky from the southwest, threatening rain before the evening. I hoped it would rain. One of our true downpours, with maybe a gale thrown in for further measure. A west country welcome.