It's sort of like the everyone-pairs-off ending of a Shakespearean comedy...only the math is much more complex! ;-)
the pieces would tumble and slip and come to rest in some new pattern, as yet unguessable – but it, too, would have its own particular beauty, of that much he was certain.
Yes, exactly.
There are some very touching moments for Bush here, particularly his feeling so out of place at Pellew's breakfast table--they were all so clever, and he so tongue-tied [...] he seemed always to be half a step behind them, racing to untangle the thread--but he provides an interesting contrast to and perspective on them throughout:
he smiled back and let it go; chewing over old bones had never been his way.
Horatio was staring at him too, as if he had gone mad to take himself off where there could be no more possible need for him, and he could only serve as an awkward reminder of the shifts Edrington had found acceptable when his true choice was – so he believed – forever taken from him
Bush, whose experience with this sort of thing was considerable, was obliged to hustle him over to the basin and pour an entire jug of cold water over his protesting form while Weston prudently vanished, to return when all was quiet again with a pot of coffee obtained at God only knew what difficulty and expense at this hour.
Bush found himself thinking, as he finished the last scraps on his plate, that he could not remember bacon to have tasted better than it did at this exact moment.
Other moments I enjoyed:
He had only to widen his eyes to seem as innocent as a lad fresh from the country
Horatio, seeming much struck by the sense of this, did.
when Bush had had leisure to recall their last encounter – which had been, in the first weeks after Renown returned to sea, more often than was strictly comfortable and, of late, less often than he might have enjoyed
the notion was in no way unpleasant, but it seemed a complex and perilous sort of thing to attempt with the deck tilting – no, that was Edrington
ha! sailors, thought they knew wind
why should he look at him with such tenderness, as if he, not Pellew, had been wronged?
"I don't break easily, you know." / "No. You don't, do you? Dear God."
She had cast a jaundiced but tolerant eye on the pillow and quilt he had draped artistically over the armchair, looked sharply at Archie, seemed to find his condition and morale acceptable, sniffed once, and gone to fetch an extra jug of hot water
...and your last line, with its reincorporation of the No, he taught me to laugh at myself motif, which works so well at Archie and Edrington's reunion here--he was coughing even as he laughed at him again – still--and draws so neatly on the characters' first meeting.
Thanks for writing!
~
PS--typo alerts?
he had though of Edrington as possessing an intimidating amount of control
his hand against on Archie's shoulder trembled
the prospect of a return to, if not to tranquility, with three sisters crammed into the cottage with him, at least to some sort of normality
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timeasmymeasure
Fire Sermon (HH; ATKM) Part Two
Date: 2006-09-07 12:55 am (UTC)the pieces would tumble and slip and come to rest in some new pattern, as yet unguessable – but it, too, would have its own particular beauty, of that much he was certain.
Yes, exactly.
There are some very touching moments for Bush here, particularly his feeling so out of place at Pellew's breakfast table--they were all so clever, and he so tongue-tied [...] he seemed always to be half a step behind them, racing to untangle the thread--but he provides an interesting contrast to and perspective on them throughout:
he smiled back and let it go; chewing over old bones had never been his way.
Horatio was staring at him too, as if he had gone mad to take himself off where there could be no more possible need for him, and he could only serve as an awkward reminder of the shifts Edrington had found acceptable when his true choice was – so he believed – forever taken from him
Bush, whose experience with this sort of thing was considerable, was obliged to hustle him over to the basin and pour an entire jug of cold water over his protesting form while Weston prudently vanished, to return when all was quiet again with a pot of coffee obtained at God only knew what difficulty and expense at this hour.
Bush found himself thinking, as he finished the last scraps on his plate, that he could not remember bacon to have tasted better than it did at this exact moment.
Other moments I enjoyed:
He had only to widen his eyes to seem as innocent as a lad fresh from the country
Horatio, seeming much struck by the sense of this, did.
when Bush had had leisure to recall their last encounter – which had been, in the first weeks after Renown returned to sea, more often than was strictly comfortable and, of late, less often than he might have enjoyed
the notion was in no way unpleasant, but it seemed a complex and perilous sort of thing to attempt with the deck tilting – no, that was Edrington
ha! sailors, thought they knew wind
why should he look at him with such tenderness, as if he, not Pellew, had been wronged?
"I don't break easily, you know." / "No. You don't, do you? Dear God."
She had cast a jaundiced but tolerant eye on the pillow and quilt he had draped artistically over the armchair, looked sharply at Archie, seemed to find his condition and morale acceptable, sniffed once, and gone to fetch an extra jug of hot water
...and your last line, with its reincorporation of the No, he taught me to laugh at myself motif, which works so well at Archie and Edrington's reunion here--he was coughing even as he laughed at him again – still--and draws so neatly on the characters' first meeting.
Thanks for writing!
~
PS--typo alerts?
he had though of Edrington as possessing an intimidating amount of control
his hand against on Archie's shoulder trembled
the prospect of a return to, if not to tranquility, with three sisters crammed into the cottage with him, at least to some sort of normality
~