...vicinity to the sea is desirable, because it is easier to do nothing by the sea than anywhere else, and because bathing and basking on the shore cannot be considered an employment but only an apotheosis of loafing. ("Expiation") — E.F. Benson Copy Share Image
“There were some hours to spare before his ship sailed, and having deposited his luggage, including a locked leather despatch-case, on board, he lunched… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“Mrs. Alingsby was tall and weird and intense, dressed rather like a bird-of-paradise that had been out in a high gale, but very well… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“The subject dropped, and we sat on in the dusk that was rapidly deepening into night. The door into the hall was open at… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“The functions of the human frame are, broadly speaking, known. They are a country, anyhow, that has been charted and mapped out. But outside… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“Miss Elizabeth Mapp might have been forty, and she had taken advantage of this opportunity by being just a year or two older. Her… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
...vicinity to the sea is desirable, because it is easier to do nothing by the sea than anywhere else, and because bathing and basking… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“With regard to religion, finally, it may be briefly said that she believed in God in much the same way as she believed in… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
When one is happy there is no time to be fatigued; being happy engrosses the whole attention. — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“He looked sharply towards the pollarded trees. 'Yes, just there,' he said. 'I saw it plainly, and equally plainly I saw it not. And… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“I wonder why he hastened to tell us that George Hearne was buried in the churchyard, and then added that naturally he was!' 'It's… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
An idea so luminous flashed across her brain that she almost thought the room had leaped into light. — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“Ah, this delicious night air,' she said, luxuriously sniffing in the coolness. 'Night air and gardening are the great tonics. There is nothing so… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
“I saw his face, too; it was the face of the driver of the hearse, with a mole on the left cheek. Then he… — E.F. Benson Copy Share
The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the time which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other. — E.F. Benson Copy Share
