How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
But Leonard was near the abyss, and at such moments men see clearly. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said. "I shall never get work now. If rich people fail at one profession, they can try another. Not I. I had my groove, and I've got out of it. I could do one particular branch of insurance in one particular office well enough to command a salary, but that's all. Poetry's nothing, Miss Schlegel. One's thoughts about this and that are nothing. Your money, too, is nothing, if you'll understand me. I mean if a man over twenty once loses his own particular job, it's all over with him. I have seen it happen to others. Their friends gave them money for a little, but in the end they fall over the edge. It's no good. It's the whole world pulling. There always will be rich and poor." (26.36)
Leonard knows well what his fate is – he was born poor, and he always will be poor. He basically unknowingly reiterates a comment Mr. Wilcox made a while back (see "Wealth"), that society will always be divided into rich and poor; it's interesting to think that both of these men, despite their differences, have reached the same conclusion.
Quote #8
"No, let us go back to Helen's request," she said. "It is unreasonable, but the request of an unhappy girl. Tomorrow she will go to Germany, and trouble society no longer. Tonight she asks to sleep in your empty house--a house which you do not care about, and which you have not occupied for over a year. May she? Will you give my sister leave? Will you forgive her--as you hope to be forgiven, and as you have actually been forgiven? Forgive her for one night only. That will be enough." (38.24)
Helen's position in society – and society's unfair double standard towards women and men – both become apparent here. Helen is forced to leave England because she'll never be able to have a normal or socially acceptable life there again (but she can in Germany?), and even Henry, her brother-in-law, can't accept her and her situation. However, as Margaret points out, he himself was once in the same position as Leonard as the illicit lover of an unmarried woman, but he never took responsibility for it, and society, like Margaret, has forgiven him for it.
Quote #9
Tom held out his arms.
"That child is a wonderful nursemaid," remarked Margaret.
"He is fond of baby. That's why he does it!" was Helen's answer. They're going to be lifelong friends."
"Starting at the ages of six and one?"
"Of course. It will be a great thing for Tom."
"It may be a greater thing for baby." (44.4-6)
This friendship between Tom and Helen's child is a significant one – for one thing, as Helen comments, Tom (a mere country lad) could benefit from the friendship of a cultured, wealthy boy. Margaret, however, recognizes that being friends with Tom, who's a real person, not just an over-civilized rich kid, could actually benefit her nephew – who himself is interestingly a combination of Helen and Leonard, a kind of microcosm of a more integrated English society and a hope for the country's future.