“I was skating one day at full swing and came clash against a man of my own stature who was going at the same. We both fell asunder—got up—and laughed. Had we been short men we might have resented.”
(I blamed some one for swearing at the servant girl in a lodging.) “I don’t know if women don’t like it from men: they think it shows Vigour.” (Not that he ever did so himself.)
“There is a want of central dignity about him—he excuses himself, etc.”
“Most great men write terse hands.”
“I like those old Variorum Classics—all the Notes make the Text look precious.”
(Of some dogmatic summary.) “That is the quick decision of a mind that sees half the truth.”
TENNYSON AND THACKERAY
By Lady Ritchie