Daily Pym

Belinda moved towards him and introduced herself. ‘I don’t suppose you remember me,’ she said, smiling rather awkwardly. Nor did she remember him, if it came to that, for she could have sworn that she had never seen him in all her life. Could a beautiful curate have grown into this tall, stringy-looking man, with a yellow, leathery complexion? His expression reminded Belinda of a sheep more than anything; his face was long, his forehead domed and his head bald. He was even rather toothy…

— Some Tame Gazelle, chapter fifteen

‘Now if only he were a widower,’ mused Harriet.

‘But he isn’t,’ said Belinda stoutly.

‘No, and Agatha’s very tough in spite of her rheumatism,’ lamented Harriet.

— Some Tame Gazelle, chapter fourteen

‘Then he’s been telling you that he’s very fond of you, and hinting that he wishes he’d married you instead of Agatha,’ went on Harriet, gallantly persevering.

‘Well, hardly that,’ ventured Belinda, growing a little more confidential, for the Ovaltine had loosened her tongue.

— Some Tame Gazelle, chapter fourteen

‘Now wouldn’t you like a nice cup of Ovaltine?’ she said, fussing round Belinda like a motherly hen.

‘Well, I don’t know, I think I would,’ said Belinda. Perhaps a nourishing milky drink was needed to bring her down to earth but it seemed an unromantic end to the evening.

— Some Tame Gazelle, chapter fourteen

‘He must be about fifty-seven or fifty-eight,’ said Harriet, who seemed to have been doing a little calculation. ‘It will be nice to see dear Theo again.’

‘On the threshold of sixty,’ mused Dr. Parnell. ‘That’s a good age for a man to marry. He needs a woman to help him into the grave.’

— Some Tame Gazelle, chapter thirteen

‘She is a vicar’s wife’s sister,’ Basil went on.

‘A vicar — what vicar?’ asked Miss Bede suspiciously.

‘The vicar of a north London parish.’

‘Oh, I see.’ Miss Bede nodded, obviously not quite satisfied.

— An Unsuitable Attachment, chapter fifteen

‘Look,’ [Harriet] cried, for she had been so absorbed in her task of ‘strengthening’ a pair of corsets with elastic thread that she had not noticed the Archdeacon creeping up the drive. Neither had Belinda but she was less observant and sharp.

— Some Tame Gazelle, chapter seven (submitted by Sheila Garforth)

‘There you are!’ she called out in a ringing tone. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere. You went out without your scarf and you know how treacherous these Italian nights are.’ She was brandishing in her hand what looked like a hand-knitted muffler in two shades of ecclesiastical purple.

— An Unsuitable Attachment, chapter fifteen

‘The Archdeacon preached a very fine sermon on Sunday, about the Judgment Day. We were all very much impressed by it. You will be glad to hear that he is looking well and has a good appetite.’

Here Belinda paused and laid down her pen. Was this last sentence perhaps a little presumptuous? Ought an archdeacon to be looking well and eating with a good appetite when his wife was away? And ought Belinda to write as if she knew about his appetite?

She turned to the letter again and added ‘as far as I know’ to the sentence about the appetite.

— Some Tame Gazelle, chapter twelve