RuthY wrote: |
what exactly happened when sybil scalded Josette? (sorry to seem ignorant) |
KB wrote: | ||
From various points in Gay: ‘How can you ever forgive Sybil?’ she burst out. ‘I should hate the very sight of her!’ ‘Oh, no, you wouldn’t,’ returned Sybil’s mother confidently. ‘She’s just as much our girl as Josette is. She meant no harm to her little sister, and if it had been only an accident, even my husband would not have been angry with her. She has broken her heart over the whole thing, poor little maid. The trouble was that she deliberately disobeyed an order, and our poor baby has had to pay for it physically. I think Sybil has paid quite heavily enough mentally.’ I think that's most of what's in Gay. Later books make mention of it, too, but I'm not hunting all them out! |
Chair wrote: |
That wasn't very nice or forgiving of Jo. I thought she was meant to forgive others as a Catholic? At least Madge talked sense into her. |
Quote: |
(Sybil) “it was my fault in the beginning.”
“Josette’s illness certainly was,” Jo agreed. “I was desperately sorry for you, Sybs, during that time—sorrier for you than anyone else, even your mother. It was hard for her to see Josette suffer, and know that there was a chance that she mightn’t live; or even if she did, she might never be well again. But it was even worse in one way for you. Madge had nothing to blame herself for. She’s always been a wonderful mother, and she’d done everything she could to help you all. If anything dreadful had happened, you would have known it was your fault. |
Quote: |
(Jo) "Sybil"s giving herself awful airs, my dear. She"s getting thoroughly spoilt. It isn"t even as if she were the only girl. There"s Josette coming along. I think it"s time someone took Sybil down a peg or two. "
"It"s not my fault," returned Madge Russell. "Don"t blame me, my dear. It"s all the silly idiots of young doctors and visitors who rave about her beauty. and you must admit, Jo, that she is pretty. " ... "David does his best," laughed Lady Russell. "He really is a most disapproving brother. And I administer an occasional squashing myself when I see it"s needed. She certainly isn"t too polite to Flora and Fiona. I must speak very seriously to her when she goes to bed. But I think part of it comes from having so many older cousins then herself in the house. Sybil knows she"s a daughter of the house, and Peg and Rix and Bride are cousins, and she"s trying to keep her end up with them all. " |
Quote: |
“You always make such a fuss of Robin,” said Sybil, tilting her small nose disdainfully. “She doesn’t really b’long to the family at all.” |
Jennie wrote: |
BTW: how did Jo know that she was sorrier for Sybil than anyone else? Was there some sort of scale or meter to measure the extent of the pity? |
Kathy_S wrote: |
We do see quite a few stages of Sybil, don't we: from adored baby, kidnapped by the Mystic M; through the little madam stage |
Changnoi wrote: |
It is 1970 by the end of the series, after all. |
Alison H wrote: |
Surely by the 1950s some of the girls would have had careers as well as homes, especially as they were mostly wealthy enough to afford "help" in the house. The attitude kind of annoys me - no-one seems to find it a big decision to give up their career: it's just taken for granted that they will. |
claire wrote: |
EBD says in a few books (can't remember if any of them are chalets or not) that 'daddy thinks it's wrong for girls to work and take jobs from girls who need to earn a living', I think she may well be of the same opinion. If it's a career, that's not too bad (providing any husband comes first) but just a job - no |
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