How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Unreasonably, ridiculously," said Neville, "as we walk, time comes back. A dog does it, prancing. The machine works. Age makes hoary that gateway. Three hundred years now seem no more than a moment vanished against that dog. King William mounts his horse wearing a wig, and the court ladies sweep the turf with their embroidered panniers. I am beginning to be convinced, as we walk, that the fate of Europe is of immense importance, and, ridiculous as it still seems, that all depends upon the battle of Blenheim. Yes; I declare, as we pass through this gateway, it is the present moment; I am become a subject of King George." (8b.36)
Hmm, as Neville too rejoins the world of the clock in this moment, he seems a lot more interested in celebrating the British monarchy and submitting to its authority as a "subject." What's that all about?
Quote #8
"The iron gates have rolled back," said Jinny. "Time's fangs have ceased their devouring. We have triumphed over the abysses of space, with rouge, with powder, with flimsy pocket-handkerchiefs." (8b.38)
Is Jinny embracing time here or celebrating escaping from it?
Quote #9
"It is not age; it is that a drop has fallen; another drop. Time has given the arrangement another shake. Out we creep from the arch of the currant leaves, out into a wider world. The true order of things—this is our perpetual illusion—is now apparent. Thus in a moment, in a drawing-room, our life adjusts itself to the majestic march of day across the sky." (9b.41)
Bernard uses the image of the drop to describe the way time operates. In his view, time gathers up and then reaches a tipping or crisis point at which it "drops" like water droplets, a process that somehow gives "the arrangement another shake." What does that image do to our understanding of how Bernard views time?