conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a description for a book titled A Glass of Blessings about Wilmet, Rodney, Major with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Contemporary?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Well dressed and looked after, Wilmet is married to Rodney, a handsome army Major, working nine thirty to six at the Ministry. Wilmet's interest wanders to the nearby Anglo-Catholic church, where at last she can neglect her comfortable household in the company of three priests and Piers Longridge.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A Glass of Blessings
  I could think of nothing to say, and perhaps nothing was needed. I was in the kind of exalted mood when all one's sensibilities seem to be sharpened, and I thought I had never seen anything so beautiful as the black persian cat crouching in a bed of double pink and white tulips on the side of the path where we were walking. Then we went down some steps and I noticed a fig tree, now putting forth its new leaves among the old dark green fruits which had never properly ripened.
  We were nearly at Temple Station now, and a desperate feeling came over me that we mustn't end up just by talking about figs.
  I got into the train in a kind of daze. As it lurched on from station to station I gave myself up to a happy dream in which I went to look after Piers when he was ill or depressed or just had a hangover. And yet, had that been what I meant when I had made my offer to him? Not an offer, exactly. But if not an offer, then what? I felt that Piers really needed me as few people did. Certainly not Rodney, I told myself, justifying my foolish indulgence. Piers needed love and understanding, perhaps already he was happier because of knowing me. When I had reached this conclusion I felt contented and peaceful, and leaned back in my seat, smiling to myself. What should I do next? I wondered; but even as I wondered I realized that I couldn't do anything. I must just wait and see what happened.
  The directions Mary had given me were easy to follow and I soon found myself approaching a large ugly red house which stood well back from the road. The bell was of the kind that may easily come away in your hand when you pull it, and I was relieved that it did not.
  A nun with steel-rimmed spectacles, and the pale lips and eyes that I always find so sinister, opened the door and smiled at me in a guarded remote sort of way. I felt that she could see right into my mind and knew all that I had been thinking about Piers. I could imagine her turning the whole thing over, coldly and dispassionately. But when she spoke her smile seemed warmer, and she said in a pleasant friendly voice, 'Would you wait in here, please? What a lovely day it's been, hasn't it?'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know five more paragraphs? End with the sentence ' Piers was not to be considered at all, even had he been the kind of man who might marry.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I wondered, though luckily I did not ask, whether he would be taking out a packed lunch every day; for I had remembered Professor Root and his sister and her friend who had apparently been doing this for ten years.
  He was interrupted by a banging on the floor, and I saw that Father Thames had mounted the platform. He looked very distinguished in a caped cassock, the waist encircled by a wide band of moiré silk.
  The speech went on for some time longer, and at its conclusion it was felt that tea was needed again. I saw Mrs Greenhill come hurrying in with more cakes, while Father Bode staggered under the weight of the urn.
  I remembered his room and saw what Mr Bason meant. His exquisite continental cooking would be wasted on Father Bode and there would be no Fabergé eggs lying around. And yet would it not perhaps be more suitable if the clergy house did become more dreary than it was at present? Didn't one really prefer to think of the clergy eating plain food and cod on Fridays?
  I had not liked to probe any more deeply into Mary's feelings for Marius Ransome and we had not discussed the subject again when she left our house. It seemed such a hopeless and hackneyed situation – dowdy parish worker in love with handsome celibate priest – and I hoped she would not brood too much over it. Her new position in the retreat house seemed to me to be very little better than that in the convent, for neither place would be likely to provide the kind of company that might take her out of herself. The trouble was that there were so few eligible men of the right age to whom one could introduce her. Sir Denbigh Grote was obviously much too old, and rather Miss Prideaux's property, one felt, and Mr Coleman was too taken up with his Husky and not quite suitable socially. Piers was not to be considered at all, even had he been the kind of man who might marry.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last four paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: But Mary would be happy whether they had money or not. I turned over in my mind her description of life as being a glass of blessings, and that naturally led me to think about myself. I had as much as Mary had – there was no reason why my own life should not be a glass of blessings too. Perhaps it always had been without my realizing it.
  I turned into the street where our new flat was, and where I knew Rodney would be waiting for me. We were to have dinner with Sybil and Arnold that evening. It seemed a happy and suitable ending to a good day.
  If Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates seem an unlikely pair to be walking together at an Oxford reunion, neither of them is aware of it. They couldn't be more different: Jane is a rather incompetent vicar's wife, who always looks as if she is about to feed the chickens, while Prudence, a pristine hothouse flower, has the most unsuitable affairs. With the move to a rural parish, Jane is determined to find her friend the perfect man. She learns, though, that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as housewifery...
  Dulcie Mainwaring is always helping others, but never looks out for herself – especially in the realm of love. Her friend Viola is besotted by the alluring Dr Aylwin Forbes, so surely it isn't prying if Dulcie helps things along? Aylwin, however, is smitten with Dulcie's pretty young niece. And perhaps Dulcie herself, however ridiculous it might be, is falling, just a little, for Aylwin. Once life's little humiliations are played out, maybe love will be returned, and fondly, after all...
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: ... Once life's little humiliations are played out, maybe love will be returned, and fondly, after all. And perhaps Dulcie herself, however ridiculous it might be, is falling, just a little, for Aylwin. Her friend Viola is besotted by the alluring Dr Aylwin Forbes, so surely it isn't prying if Dulcie helps things along? Aylwin, however, is smitten with Dulcie's pretty young niece.
  Dulcie Mainwaring is always helping others, but never looks out for herself – especially in the realm of love... She learns, though, that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as housewifery. With the move to a rural parish, Jane is determined to find her friend the perfect man. They couldn't be more different: Jane is a rather incompetent vicar's wife, who always looks as if she is about to feed the chickens, while Prudence, a pristine hothouse flower, has the most unsuitable affairs.
  If Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates seem an unlikely pair to be walking together at an Oxford reunion, neither of them is aware of it. It seemed a happy and suitable ending to a good day. We were to have dinner with Sybil and Arnold that evening.
  I turned into the street where our new flat was, and where I knew Rodney would be waiting for me. Perhaps it always had been without my realizing it. I had as much as Mary had – there was no reason why my own life should not be a glass of blessings too. I turned over in my mind her description of life as being a glass of blessings, and that naturally led me to think about myself.But Mary would be happy whether they had money or not