Brenda’s Reviews > The Proper Place > Status Update

“Mother, if it is ever my painful privilege to write your epitaph, d’you know what I’ll put? She never made a fuss. And I can’t imagine a nicer thing to have said about one.”

“How glibly you say it! It’s your job, of course, to preach that, but you’re a good man and you wouldn’t lie to me. Tell me, Does Christ really mean anything to you?” The minister took off his shabby felt hat and held it in both hands as he said, “I am His joyful slave, and He is my Lord and my God.”

But there’s something else, Babs. Your whole outlook on life has changed. Happiness makes people wonderfully kind.”

Isn’t life the most laughable, pathetic jumble? I wonder what Miss Symington’s religion really amounts to! Does she want to do good because Christ died for her, and for His sake she must be loving and giving, or is it only an inherited fear of a jealous God Who will send her to Hell if she doesn’t heap up, ant-like, little bundles of good deeds and works of mercy?

She and Andrew had not danced much together, but when they passed each other they had exchanged understanding smiles which seemed to establish an intimacy that no amount of talking could have done.

They talked together, and Nicole was conscious of the feeling that she always had in Simon’s company, a feeling of comfort and content, of being able to dabble in the shallows of talk, knowing they would both be equally at home in the depths.

It was quiet and strange to Nicole and her mother without the boy. In the short time he had lived with them he had made a place for himself, and every way they turned there was a gap.
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“Ah, but there’s always time to read, odd half-hours, and even ten minutes aren’t to be despised that give you a refreshing page or two to go on with.”

“You’re willing to let me have all the virtues but you keep the graces.” Miss Symington smiled and flushed as she spoke, astonished at her own repartee,