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Elmer Moffatt
Raymond de Chelles is a French marquis and of Undine Spragg’s third husband. Although his significant wealth and European background seem to differentiate him from Undine’s previous husbands, he ultimately disappoints her just as her previous husbands did. Partly, this is because Undine is the type of person who’s never satisfied, but it’s also because Raymond fails to live up to her romantic notions of European nobility. Even compared to the old-money families of New York, Raymond is traditional, since European history goes back even further. Raymond’s Catholic faith (which forbids divorce) has ancient roots and contrasts with the more recent Protestant faith of most of the American characters from New York. Raymond also has an old-fashioned devotion to preserving his family’s rural chateau, which contrasts with the more contemporary urban style of the wealthy American characters. All of this bores Undine, who prefers the bustle of urban life, yet the strength of Raymond’s belief in tradition leaves her feeling powerless to oppose him. Raymond demonstrates how there are different kinds of wealth outside of New York high society and how in spite of old money’s glamor, it often comes with traditions that trap new generations in their ancestors’ shadows.
Raymond de Chelles Quotes in The Custom of the Country
The The Custom of the Country quotes below are all either spoken by Raymond de Chelles or refer to Raymond de Chelles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
Some six weeks later. Undine Marvell stood at the window smiling down on her recovered Paris.
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Chapter 24
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“If you’d only had the sense to come straight to me, Undine Spragg!
There isn’t a tip I couldn’t have given you—not one!”
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Chapter 30
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“You couldn’t, up to now; but now you’re going to get married. You’re going to be able to give him a home and a father’s care—and the foreign languages. That’s what I’d say if I was you…His father takes considerable stock in him, don’t he?”
She coloured, a denial on her lips; but she could not shape it. “We’re both awfully fond of him, of course… His father’d never give him up!”
“Just so.” Moffatt’s face had grown as sharp as glass. “You’ve got the Marvells running. All you’ve got to do’s to sit tight and wait for their cheque.” He dropped back to his equestrian seat on the lyre-backed chair.
Chapter 38
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In a window of the long gallery of the chateau de Saint Desert the new Marquise de Chelles stood looking down the poplar avenue into the November rain. It had been raining heavily and persistently for a longer time than she could remember. Day after day the hills beyond the park had been curtained by motionless clouds, the gutters of the long steep roofs had gurgled with a perpetual overflow, the opaque surface of the moat been peppered by a continuous pelting of big drops.
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Chapter 40
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“Sell it? Sell Saint Desert?”
The suggestion seemed to strike him as something monstrously, almost fiendishly significant: as if her random word had at last thrust into his hand the clue to their whole unhappy difference. Without understanding this, she guessed it from the change in his face: it was as if a deadly solvent had suddenly decomposed its familiar lines.
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Chapter 44
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“Hullo!” he exclaimed, surprised; and as he stood aside to let her enter she saw him draw out his watch and glance at it surreptitiously. He was expecting someone, or he had an engagement elsewhere—something claimed him from which she was excluded. The thought flushed her with sudden resolution. She knew now what she had come for—to keep him from every one else, to keep him for herself alone.
“Don’t send me away!” she said, and laid her hand on his beseechingly.
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Raymond de Chelles Quotes in The Custom of the Country
The The Custom of the Country quotes below are all either spoken by Raymond de Chelles or refer to Raymond de Chelles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
Some six weeks later. Undine Marvell stood at the window smiling down on her recovered Paris.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24
Quotes
“If you’d only had the sense to come straight to me, Undine Spragg!
There isn’t a tip I couldn’t have given you—not one!”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30
Quotes
“You couldn’t, up to now; but now you’re going to get married. You’re going to be able to give him a home and a father’s care—and the foreign languages. That’s what I’d say if I was you…His father takes considerable stock in him, don’t he?”
She coloured, a denial on her lips; but she could not shape it. “We’re both awfully fond of him, of course… His father’d never give him up!”
“Just so.” Moffatt’s face had grown as sharp as glass. “You’ve got the Marvells running. All you’ve got to do’s to sit tight and wait for their cheque.” He dropped back to his equestrian seat on the lyre-backed chair.
Chapter 38
Quotes
In a window of the long gallery of the chateau de Saint Desert the new Marquise de Chelles stood looking down the poplar avenue into the November rain. It had been raining heavily and persistently for a longer time than she could remember. Day after day the hills beyond the park had been curtained by motionless clouds, the gutters of the long steep roofs had gurgled with a perpetual overflow, the opaque surface of the moat been peppered by a continuous pelting of big drops.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 40
Quotes
“Sell it? Sell Saint Desert?”
The suggestion seemed to strike him as something monstrously, almost fiendishly significant: as if her random word had at last thrust into his hand the clue to their whole unhappy difference. Without understanding this, she guessed it from the change in his face: it was as if a deadly solvent had suddenly decomposed its familiar lines.
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Page Number and Citation:
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Chapter 44
Quotes
“Hullo!” he exclaimed, surprised; and as he stood aside to let her enter she saw him draw out his watch and glance at it surreptitiously. He was expecting someone, or he had an engagement elsewhere—something claimed him from which she was excluded. The thought flushed her with sudden resolution. She knew now what she had come for—to keep him from every one else, to keep him for herself alone.
“Don’t send me away!” she said, and laid her hand on his beseechingly.
