Wordy Wednesday: After the Manner of Book-Lovers

Last week Amazon offered one of Georgette Heyer’s mysteries as the deal of the day, and I couldn’t resist.  I started it and have quickly gotten excited about it.  I was thinking I wouldn’t have a quote this week, but lo and behold, a wonderful quote showed up.

Sir Humphrey, after the manner of book-lovers,
began to wander round studying the closely packed shelves. He said
severely that he wondered Fountain had not had the library catalogued
and arranged in decent order.

From her seat in the window Felicity
remarked that she didn’t suppose he cared. ‘Not bookish, darling,’ she
smiled.

‘That is self-evident,’ said her father, putting on his glasses
and studying the backs of a row of calf-bound classics.

‘They all look
fairly dull anyway,’ said Felicity airily.

Sir Humphrey, who had
discovered a treasure, did not reply. She transferred her attention to the activities
of a gardener who was sweeping up the fallen leaves on the lawn and left
her parent to browse in peace. When Fountain came in apologising for
keeping his visitor waiting, he was turning over the pages of a dusty
volume culled from the obscurity of a top shelf and said absently: ‘Not
at all, not at all. I have been looking over your books. My dear sir,
are you aware that they are all arranged according to size?’

Fountain
looked a trifle bewildered and said that he was afraid he was not much
of a reader. He was told that he should employ someone to put the
library in order. It appeared that many rare editions were in his
possession, and that De Quincey was rubbing shoulders with somebody’s
Recollections of the Russian Court. He gathered from Sir Humphrey’s tone
that this was a crime and said that he was very ignorant in these
matters.

‘I believe your grandfather was a great collector,’ said Sir
Humphrey. He held up the book in his hand. ‘Here is an old friend whom I
have not met, alas, for many years. I cannot think why it is missing
from my own shelves. I wonder if I may borrow it? A pernicious habit, I
am aware.’

‘Do by all means,’ said Fountain, hoping to get away from the
subject of books. ‘Very glad if you’d borrow anything you want to.’

‘Thank you. I just have a fancy to dip into these pages again. I will
take the first volume, if I may.’

Fountain gave his noisy laugh. ‘First
volume, eh? I don’t mind admitting I shy at anything in more than one
volume.’ Sir Humphrey looked at him with much the same wonder as he
would have displayed upon being confronted by a dinosaur. ‘Dear me!’ he
said. ‘Yet this work – it is Disraeli’s Curiosities of Literature – you
would find well worth the – ah – labour of reading. But I did not come
to talk about books. I must not waste your time.’

How many bookshelves (or pictures of bookshelves) have you craned your eyes at recently?  Love this.

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