Trusting one’s judgement (Metaphor) (The example is taken from "Alicia’s Diary")
M. de la Feste “does certainly seem to be all” that “one could desire as a protector” to “a sensitive fragile child like Caroline,” and for that Alicia was “thankful.” Still, the young woman remembers that she sees him yet “only through” Caroline’s “eyes.” It is a well-known fact that people in love tend to idealize their lovers and don’t notice their flaws. That is the reason why Alicia is worried. She knows how tender and trusting her young sister is, and what is worse she is too far away from her to be able to protect Caroline.
Dead (Metaphor) (The example is taken from “Alicia’s Diary”)
Death is not a pleasant topic to discuss. Some people are so frightened of it that they try to avoid even uttering that word at any cost. Alicia couldn’t believe that she was away when her mother’s “spirit” flew, it was simply devastating to be so far away from her family when they needed her so much. The poor mother died in a foreign land without a chance to say goodbye to her beloved ones and dear friends. It was “some comfort” that at least the father “arrived in time” to hear from her own lips “her strongly expressed wish” that Caroline’s marriage “should be solemnized as soon as possible.”
Maddingly slowly (Metaphor) (The example is taken from “Alicia’s Diary”)
Though what M. de la Feste writes is “reasonable enough,” Caroline still looks “heart-sick about it.” She wants him to come sooner and refuses to listen to the voice of reasoning that says that it is “hardly worth while for him to cross all the way to England and back just now, while the sea is so turbulent.” When Caroline becomes his wife she will be “more practical,” but she is such a child “as yet that there is no contenting her with reasons.” The month is flowing “on swallow’s wings,” days drag so slowly that Caroline starts feeling restless.
Versatile (Simile) (The example is taken from “Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir”)
The main reason why the small band was “very much in demand Christmas week” was their ability to turn “a jig or a hornpipe out of hand” as well as ever they could turn out a psalm, and “perhaps better.” “In short, one half-hour” they could be playing “a Christmas carol in the squire’s hall to the ladies and gentlemen,” and drinking “tea and coffee” with them “as modest as saints”, and “the next week,” at the Tinker’s Arm, “blazing away like wild horses” with the “Dashing White Sergeant” to nine couple of dancers and more, “swallowing rum-and-cider” “hot as flame.”
Freezing (Simile) (The example is taken from “Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir”)
It was hellishly cold that day in the church. Poor Nicholas could not take it any longer, so he brought “a gallon of hot brandy and beer, ready mixed, to church with him that afternoon.” He kept it “well wrapped up in Timothy Thomas’ bass-viol bag” preserving it “drinkably warm”. When they had had the last pull, they felt “quite comfortable and warm,” and as the sermon went on, they “fell asleep.” And there they slept “as sound as rocks.”
