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“But when we talk about her, she comes to life.” “Never forget that, Esme. Words are our tools of resurrection.”
“I feel like a dandelion just before the wind blows.”
Menstrue was the same as catamenia. It meant unclean blood. But what blood was clean? It always left a stain.
“Literately”
A vulgar word, well placed and said with just enough vigour, can express far more than its polite equivalent.
“It brings a woman pleasure, Esme. That’s its only function. Knowing that changes everything, don’t you think?”
“It’s not about forgiveness, Essymay. We can’t always make the choices we’d like, but we can try to make the best of what we must settle for. Take care not to dwell.”
“I reckon it derives from grief,” said Mabel. “From what we’ve lost and what we’ve never ’ad and never will. As I said, a woman’s lot. It should be in your dictionary. It’s too common not to be understood.”
It’s for ladies with means, and such ladies will always want someone else to scrub their floors and empty their pots.” There was an edge to her voice I’d rarely heard. “If they get the vote, I’ll still be Mrs. Murray’s bondmaid.”
How reassuring it must be to know how you should act: like having a definition of yourself written clearly in black type.
and I realised that the words most often used to define us were words that described our function in relation to others. Even the most benign words—maiden, wife, mother—told the world whether we were virgins or not.
It seems the fight for suffrage is not incompatible with the romance of being swept off one’s feet. We are a complicated species.
It struck me that we are never fully at ease when we are aware of another’s gaze. Perhaps we are never fully ourselves.
Stay busy—I cannot overstate the benefits of a busy day for an anxious mind or a lonely heart.
But I wouldn’t be going to the station. I couldn’t bear it.
LOVE A passionate affection.
ETERNAL Everlasting, endless, beyond death.
She told me, not long ago, that she had always been a bondmaid to the Dictionary. It owned her, she said. Even after she left, it defined her. Still, despite these shackles, she was not afforded even a balcony view.
