"Carew, it is five weeks that I have been in this house. Dent and dear little Mother Dent have been angel-good to me. Miss Dent--" He hesitated.英文原著 · 《On The Firing Line》
In the spring, Joan, at Mrs. Denton's request, undertook a mission. It was to go to Paris. Denton had meant to go herself, but was laid up with sciatica; and the matter, she considered, would not brook of any delay. "It's rather a delicate business," she told Joan. She was lying on a couch in her great library, and Joan was seated by her side. "I want someone who can go into private houses and mix with educated people on their own level; and especially I want you to see one or two women: they count in France. You know French pretty well, don't you?"
"Oh, sufficiently," Joan answered.英文原著 · 《All Roads Lead to Calvary》
My father may be coming to live with me. Good-bye. Do all you can to help him."
She stooped and kissed the child, straining her to her almost fiercely. But the child's lips were cold. She did not look back. Miss Greyson was sympathetic towards her desire for a longish holiday and wonderfully helpful; and Mrs. Denton also approved, and, to Joan's surprise, kissed her; Mrs. Denton was not given to kissing.英文原著 · 《All Roads Lead to Calvary》
That, at all events, was English. The country must be saved. To their sons and daughters it was the originality, the novelty that gradually appealed. Denton's Fridays became a new sensation. It came to be the chic and proper thing to appear at them in shades of mauve or purple. A pushing little woman in Hanover Street designed the "Denton" bodice, with hanging sleeves and square-cut neck. The younger men inclined towards a coat shaped to the waist with a roll collar. Joan sighed.英文原著 · 《All Roads Lead to Calvary》
It looked as if the word had been passed round to treat the whole thing as a joke. Denton took a different view. "Nothing better could have happened," she was of opinion. "It means that their hearts are in it."
The stone hall was still vibrating to the voices of the last departed guests. Joan was seated on a footstool before the fire in front of Mrs. Denton's chair. "It's the thing that gives me greatest hope," she continued. "The childishness of men and women.英文原著 · 《All Roads Lead to Calvary》
She would want to be doing something-- to get out to the front, if possible. Maybe, her desire to serve was not altogether free from curiosity--from the craving for adventure. There's a spice of the man even in the best of women. Her conscience plagued her when she thought of Mrs. Denton. For some time now, they had been very close together; and the old lady had come to depend upon her. She waited till all doubt was ended before calling to say good-bye. Denton was seated before an old bureau that had long stood locked in a corner of the library.英文原著 · 《All Roads Lead to Calvary》