This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy⁠—or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and ye...

This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy⁠—or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and ye...

I don’t know how it is best to put this thing down⁠—whether it would be better to try and tell the story from the beginning, as if it were a story; or whether to tell it from this distance of time, as...

It was a very hot summer, in August, 1904; and Florence had already been taking the baths for a month. I don’t know how it feels to be a patient at one of those places. I never was a patient anywhere....

So began those nine years of uninterrupted tranquillity. They were characterized by an extraordinary want of any communicativeness on the part of the Ashburnhams to which we, on our part, replied by l...

Those words gave me the greatest relief that I have ever had in my life. They told me, I think, almost more than I have ever gathered at any one moment⁠—about myself. I don’t think that before that da...

I remember laughing at the phrase, “accept the situation,” which she seemed to repeat with a gravity too intense. I said to her something like: “It’s hardly as much as that. I mean, that I must claim ...

The death of Mrs. Maidan occurred on the 4th of August, 1904. And then nothing happened until the 4th of August, 1913. There is the curious coincidence of dates, but I do not know whether that is one ...

The death of Mrs. Maidan occurred on the 4th of August, 1904. And then nothing happened until the 4th of August, 1913. There is the curious coincidence of dates, but I do not know whether that is one ...

Let me think where we were. Oh, yes⁠ ⁠… that conversation took place on the 4th of August, 1913. I remember saying to her that, on that day, exactly nine years before, I had made their acquaintance, s...

The odd thing is that what sticks out in my recollection of the rest of that evening was Leonora’s saying: “Of course you might marry her,” and, when I asked whom, she answered: “The girl.” Now that i...

The odd thing is that what sticks out in my recollection of the rest of that evening was Leonora’s saying: “Of course you might marry her,” and, when I asked whom, she answered: “The girl.” Now that i...

Immediately after Florence’s death Leonora began to put the leash upon Nancy Rufford and Edward. She had guessed what had happened under the trees near the Casino. They stayed at Nauheim some weeks af...

And then Leonora completely broke down⁠—on the day that they returned to Branshaw Teleragh. It is the infliction of our miserable minds⁠—it is the scourge of atrocious but probably just destiny that n...

It is very difficult to give an all-round impression of a man. I wonder how far I have succeeded with Edward Ashburnham. I dare say I haven’t succeeded at all. It is ever very difficult to see how suc...

I call this the Saddest Story, rather than “The Ashburnham Tragedy,” just because it is so sad, just because there was no current to draw things along to a swift and inevitable end. There is about it ...

I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it. I have stuck to my idea of be...

I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it. I have stuck to my idea of be...

Well, that about brings me up to the date of my receiving, in Waterbury, the laconic cable from Edward to the effect that he wanted me to go to Branshaw and have a chat. I was pretty busy at the time ...

Nancy had, in fact, been thinking ever since Leonora had made that comment over the giving of the horse to young Selmes. She had been thinking and thinking, because she had had to sit for many days si...

And it seemed to her to be in tune with the mood, with the hour, and with the woman in front of her to say that she knew Edward was dying of love for her and that she was dying of love for Edward. For...

It is this part of the story that makes me saddest of all. For I ask myself unceasingly, my mind going round and round in a weary, baffled space of pain⁠—what should these people have done? What, in t...

My coming on the scene certainly calmed things down⁠—for the whole fortnight that intervened between my arrival and the girl’s departure. I don’t mean to say that the endless talking did not go on at ...