fabulously phrased

Here are a few wonderful quotes from my recent reading which accompanied Henry James's Daisy Miller. The first quote I relate to immensely whenever I wander alone in a museum, feeling isolated and quietly awed in the middle of history. The second! Advice I shall certainly endeavor to drill into my daughters someday.

 “It was the air she wanted and the world she would now exclusively choose; the quiet chambers, nobly overwhelming, rich but slightly veiled; opened out round her and made her presently say “If I could lose myself here!” James Henry, “The Wings of a Dove,” On an American woman spending time in museums in Europe. (The above painting is my general museum face, I feel sure).

“All the waters of the Mediterranean cannot wash clean the name of a young lady who makes a rendezvous and takes a walk with a fascinating chance acquaintance.” William Dean Howell’s “Defense of Daisy Miller”

(The below photograph is what will almost certainly result from a rendezvous with a fascinating chance acquaintance).

images top to bottom: redretrokitchen.com,en.laffichemoderne.com,  m.bing.com