Chapter 6 of 28 · 3'01"
On a bright day out on the water, Rick and Stella tease each other about seasickness and windblown hair. "No. It's just I've never known anyone who laughed much," Stella says — a light afternoon that quietly reveals how little joy she has had, just before Rick leaves for London.
Rick and Stella's Day on the Water
Rick Says Goodbye Before London
Rick Fitzgerald takes Stella Meredith sailing on the water. They joke about seasickness and her loose, windblown hair, then dock at the jetty. Rick is about to leave for London for three weeks; he offers to take Stella home first. Before saying goodbye, Stella tells him she is happy that he and his sister are moving into Windward.
The scene looks like idle flirting on a boat, but it is really about what Stella has been missing. Rick needles her about her hair — "Talking high poetry or selling hairstyle advertising?" — and she answers the question that matters: "No. It's just I've never known anyone who laughed much." Her gaiety is borrowed; she is drawn to Rick because he is the first person around her who treats life lightly. When Rick asks her to look after Pamela while he is in London, and she promises to speak to her grandfather, the easy afternoon turns into a quiet goodbye — the moment she admits, unprompted, how glad she is that he and his sister are moving in. What she is really saying is that she does not want him to go.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“What am I doing? Talking high poetry or selling hairstyle advertising?”
He mocks his own praise even as he gives it, which makes the compliment land.
Neutral
“It's wonderful like this, all loose and free and windblown.”
Three small phrases in a row turn loose hair in sea wind into a feeling you can almost touch.
literary
“No. It's just I've never known anyone who laughed much.”
A flat little answer that quietly explains a whole guarded life.
Neutral
“I've made it last a long time.”
A flat sentence hides a dead mother's memory in the refusal to use something up.
Neutral
Up next · 07sleeping-beauty magicThe scene: Lizzie Comes Home to the HouseRick is leaving for London for about three weeks and wants his sister to have company. It is also his way of keeping the easy bond between the two households alive.
She is saying that the people around her have rarely been cheerful. It is less a complaint than a confession that the lightness Rick brings is new to her.
Commander Beech is protective of Stella and distrustful of Windward House. She knows he will disapprove of the outing and wants to spare herself a fight.
It certainly looks that way. She lingers, calls him back to say she is happy that he and his sister are moving into Windward, and seems reluctant to let him go.
