They Knew Mr. Knight Quotes

“Married people should be seen together to be known. In the presence of his wife, Mr. Knight was a different man. Alone, he was affable, attentive, courteous, good-humoured. When she was there, he seemed to stand aside, to let her have the field; rather as he might a dog whose antics, though not amusing, must be put up with - perhaps because it belonged to the house. While his wife talked, he had a habit of feeling if his cheeks were shaven closely enough, running his fingers over his ears, examining his nails, doing all the odd jobs he had no time to think of otherwise. He could not be got to join in any conversation in which his wife took part.”
― Dorothy Whipple, They Knew Mr. Knight

“Everything changes. I change too. Imperceptibly, so that I don’t know I’m changing. It’s only when I look back I know I’ve changed. Once, it seems to me, I lived a full, strong life in my body. I loved Thomas and the children greedily – and that was almost enough for me. But now something in me stretches out, like one of those caterpillars that cling to the end of a twig and wave themselves about in the air, feeling for something to hold on to.”
― Dorothy Whipple, They Knew Mr. Knight