A Room With A View - Forster E.M..pdf - Cove Systems

Chapter XIII: How Miss Bartlett's Boiler Was So
Tiresome
How often had Lucy rehearsed this bow, this
interview! But she had always rehearsed them
indoors, and with certain accessories, which
surely we have a right to assume. Who could
foretell that she and George would meet in the
rout of a civilization, amidst an army of coats
and collars and boots that lay wounded over
the sunlit earth? She had imagined a young Mr.
Emerson, who might be shy or morbid or
indifferent or furtively impudent. She was
prepared for all of these. But she had never
imagined one who would be happy and greet
her with the shout of the morning star.
Indoors herself, partaking of tea with old Mrs.
Butterworth, she reflected that it is impossible
to foretell the future with any degree of
accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life.
A fault in the scenery, a face in the audience,
an irruption of the audience on to the stage,
and all our carefully planned gestures mean