I thought I would share some of the more interesting ideas and quotes found in Margaret Oliphant's novel Miss Marjoribanks. “It is the object of my life to be a comfort to dear papa.”
“For it was already known that the Doctor’s daughter was not a mild young lady, easy to be controlled; but, on the contrary, had all the energy and determination to have her own way, which naturally belonged to a girl who possessed a considerable chin, and a mouth which could shut, and tightly curling tawny tresses, which were still more determined than she was to be arranged only according to their inclination.”
“But Lucilla, for her part, had the calmest and most profound conviction that, when she discussed her own doings and plans and clevernesses, she was bringing forward the subject most interesting to her audience as well as to herself.”
“Besides, as is not uncommon with women who are clever women, and aware of the fact, Miss Marjoribanks preferred the society of men, and rather liked to say so.”
“As she stepped into the steamboat at Dover which was to convey her to scenes so new, Lucilla felt more and more that she who held the reorganization of society in Carlingford in her hands was a woman with a mission. She was going abroad as the heir-apparent went to America and the Holy Land, to complete her education, and fit herself, by an examination of the peculiarities of other nations, for an illustrious and glorious reign at home.”
“For, to be sure, she knew by instinct what sort of clay the people were made of by whom she had to work, and gave them their reward with that liberality and discrimination which is the glory of enlightened despotism.”
“She did not give any money to the beggar who at that period infested Grange Lane with her six children, for that was contrary to those principles of political economy which she had studied with such success at Mount Pleasant; but she stopped and asked her name, and where she lived, and promised to inquire into her case. ‘If you are honest and want to work, I will try to find you something to do,’ said Miss Marjoribanks; which, to be sure, was a threat appalling enough to keep her free from any further molestation on the part of that interesting family.”
“‘I never take anybody’s word for what is so plainly stated in the Holy Scriptures,’said Miss Bury; ‘I never heard any one utter such a terrible idea. I am sure I don’t want to defend a—a murderer,’ cried the Rector’s sister, with agitation; ‘but I have heard of persons in that unfortunate position coming to a heavenly frame of mind, and giving every evidence of being truly converted. The law may take their lives, but it is an awful thing—a truly dreadful thing,’ said Miss Bury, trembling all over, ‘to try to take away their soul.’”
“The Rector was a very good man, but was Evangelical, and had a large female circle who admired and swore by him; and, consequently, he felt it in a manner natural that he should take his seat first, and the place that belonged to him as the principal person present; and then, to be sure, his mission here was for Mrs. Mortimer’s as well as Miss Marjoribank’s ‘good.’”
“‘I wish you would not talk to me of happiness. I have always been brought up to believe that duty was happiness’…She gave a little sigh as she spoke, the sigh of a great soul, whose motives must always remain to some extent unappreciated.”
“To be sure the men did not even find out what it was that awoke the ladies’ attention; but then, in delicate matters of social politics, one never expects to be understood by them.”
“He was one of those men who are very strong for the masculine side of Christianity; and when he was with the ladies, he had a sense that he ought to be paid attention to, instead of taking that trouble in his own person.”
“It is frightfully hard for a woman to stand by and see a set of men making a mess of things, and not to dare to say a word till all is spoiled.”
“Notwithstanding all that people say to the contrary, there is a power in virtue which makes itself felt in such an emergency.”
“But, to be sure, it is only natural that goodness and self-control should have the best of it sometimes even in this uncertain world.”
“…the Archdeacon was quite ready to enter into the young people’s absurd theories, and discuss the very Bible itself, as if that were a book to be discussed.”
“What did it matter what other people might be doing or saying? Was not she still Lucilla Marjoribanks? And when one had said that, one had said all.”
“To be sure, he was a Broad-Churchman, and not the type of clergyman to which Lucilla in her heart inclined; but still a man may be Broad Church, and speak a little freely on religious matters, without being a basilisk.”
“He laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks—the unconscious simpleton; and all the time his wife could have liked to throw him down and trample on him, or put pins into him, or scratch his beaming, jovial countenance.”
“Rose thought no more of him than if he had been a piece of furniture…”
“And when a woman has an active mind, and still does not care for parish work, it is a little hard for her to find a ‘sphere.’ And Lucilla, though she said nothing about a sphere, was still more or less in that condition of mind which has been so often and so fully described to the British public—when the ripe female intelligence, not having the natural resource of a nursery and a husband to manage, turns inwards, and begins to ‘make a protest’ against the existing order of society, and to call the world to account for giving it no due occupation—and to consume itself. She was not the woman to make protests, nor claim for herself the doubtful honours of a false position; but she felt all the same that at her age she had outlived the occupations that were sufficient for her youth…Lucilla had become conscious that her capabilities were greater than her work. She was a Power in Carlingford, and she knew it; but still there is little good in the existence of a Power unless it can be made use of for some worthy end.”
