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The Blue Castle

The other picture was a faded, passe-partouted engraving of Queen Louise coming down a stairway, which Aunt Wellington had lavishly given her on her tenth birthday. For nineteen years she had looked at it and hated it, beautiful, smug, self-satisfied Queen Louise.

Galileo

Valancy had not then heard of Galileo but her fate was similar to his.

Unknown

Despair is a free man–hope is a slave.

Venus de Milo

So proper that she blushed when she saw the advertisement picture of a corset and had put a dress on her Venus de Milo statuette which made it look “real tasty.”

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Uncle Herbert made his hardy perennial joke when he helped Aunt Wellington to the cold meat–”Mary, will you have a little lamb?”

King John

A fellow by the hand of nature marked,
Quoted and sighed to do a deed of shame

Exodus 20

“Doss,” said Uncle James heavily, “the Ten Commandments are fairly up to date still–especially the fifth. Have you forgotten that?” “No,” said Valancy, “but I thought you had–especially the ninth. Have you ever thought, Uncle James, how dull life would be without the Ten Commandments? It is only when things are forbidden that they become fascinating.”

Isaiah 55

Abel was piously drunk at her funeral and insisted on repeating the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah–Abel knew most of the Bible and all the Psalms by heart–while the minister, whom he disliked, prayed or tried to pray.

Lady Jane Grey

Lots of room in Lady Jane Grey Slosson. And she always gets back some time, does Lady Jane.

Luke 15:11-32

Wouldn’t it be splendid if she could induce the prodigal daughter to return?

Mark 4:25

“Am not so young as I once was,” agreed Valancy. “‘To her that hath shall be given.’ Do you really think I would make a good stepmother, Cousin Georgiana?”

Torquemada

“Thanks,” said Valancy very gratefully. “How you would have enjoyed being Torquemada! Now, I must really be getting back. Mother, may I have those three woollen cushions I worked last winter?”

Luke 12:27

Valancy toiled not, neither did she spin.

Bluebeard

So many hours a day Barney shut himself up in Bluebeard’s Chamber.

Lucullus

Here they found berries that might have graced the banquets of Lucullus, great ambrosial sweetnesses hanging like rubies to long, rosy stalks.

Aurora

When Valancy carried any of these berries home that elusive essence escaped and they became nothing more than the common berries of the market-place–very kitchenly good indeed, but not as they would have been, eaten in their birch dell until her fingers were stained as pink as Aurora’s eyelids.

The Bridal of Triermain

Seen too close by, the resemblance was lost, as in the fairy-tale of the Castle of St. John.

To -

All the beauty that old Greece and Rome, sung, painted, taught.

Tennyson
Carlyle

Sometimes Abel and Barney talked while Valancy made candy for them; sometimes they sat and smoked in silence à la Tennyson and Carlyle, until the Blue Castle reeked and Valancy fled to the open.

Carman

“A plate of apples, an open fire, and ‘a jolly goode booke’ are a fair substitute for heaven,” vowed Barney. “Any one can have the streets of gold. Let’s have another whack at Carman.

Unknown

My wife has the fever, O then,
My wife has the fever, O then,
My wife has the fever,
Oh, I hope it won’t leave her,
For I want to be single again.”

Lady Clara Vere de Vere

It shone like a mirror and its interior plainly indicated the car caste of Vere de Vere

Luke 15:11-32

“I wonder if the Prodigal Son ever felt really at home again,” she thought.

Quatre Bas

“The grey “steel engraving” of Quatre Bras, where the British regiment forever stood at bay. The crayon enlargement of the boyish father she had never known.

Wandering Jew

The green cascade of “Wandering Jew” still tumbled out of the old granite saucepan on the windowstand.

Alhambra

And our autumns travelling. I want you to see the Alhambra–it’s the nearest thing to the Blue Castle of your dreams I can think of.

Last modified: January 10, 2009