How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"This is life. If I press on, I shall inherit a chair and a rug; a place in Surrey with glass houses, and some rare conifer, melon or flowering tree which other merchants will envy. Yet I still keep my attic room. There I open the usual little book; there I watch the rain glisten on the tiles till they shine like a policeman's waterproof; there I see the broken windows in poor people's houses; the lean cats; some slattern squinting in a cracked looking-glass as she arranges her face for the street corner; there Rhoda sometimes comes. For we are lovers." (6b.6)
Despite his access to the finer things, Louis appears to remain attracted to less savory elements of city life as well, maintaining an attic room from which he can stare at a "slattern" staring in a cracked mirror and skinny cats, both of which seem to be staples of a more impoverished life than he currently enjoys.
Quote #8
"Yet when six o'clock comes and I touch my hat to the commissionaire, being always too effusive in ceremony since I desire so much to be accepted; and struggle, leaning against the wind, buttoned up, with my jaws blue and my eyes running water, I wish that a little typist would cuddle on my knees; I think that my favourite dish is liver and bacon; and so am apt to wander to the river, to the narrow streets where there are frequent public-houses, and the shadows of ships passing at the end of the street, and women fighting. But I say to myself, recovering my sanity, Mr. Prentice at four, Mr. Eyres at four-thirty. The hatchet must fall on the block; the oak must be cleft to the centre. The weight of the world is on my shoulders. Here is the pen and the paper; on the letters in the wire basket I sign my name, I, I, and again I." (6b.9)
Here, Louis struggles with his desire to be accepted in his new world and his sense that he's a fraud. He tries to tamp down his seedier tastes with reminders about his appointments and his duties at work.
Quote #9
"I am immensely respectable. All the young ladies in the office acknowledge my entrance. I can dine where I like now, and without vanity may suppose that I shall soon acquire a house in Surrey, two cars, a conservatory and some rare species of melon. But I still return, I still come back to my attic, hang up my hat and resume in solitude that curious attempt which I have made since I brought down my fist on my master's grained oak door. I open a little book. I read one poem. One poem is enough." (7b.28).
In this moment, Louis once again mentions the distinction between the world of his professional life and that of his attic room (which he maintains in spite of his increasing wealth and prestige). Interestingly, the attic is where he can rekindle his scholarly and literary interests.