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Fri 5 Jul, 2013 03:07 am
Hi guys, I was reading The Unbearable Bassington. I could not understand this sentence (the bold part), could anyone explain it for me. Thank you.
The crowd grew thicker in the galleries, cheerfully enduring an amount of overcrowding that would have been fiercely resented in a railway carriage. Near the entrance Mervyn Quentock was talking to a Serene Highness, a lady who led a life of obtrusive usefulness, largely imposed on her by a good-natured inability to say “No.” “That woman creates a positive draught with the number of bazaars she opens,” a frivolously-spoken ex-Cabinet Minister had once remarked. At the present moment she was being whimsically apologetic.
@lizfeehily,
Liz a "draught" is a small wind, of the sort rushing in as she opens a symbolic portal
"Positive" means certain, obvious, or undoubted
We often use 'positive' or 'positively' in a kind of paradoxical way when we really mean that what we are saying is a joke or figure of speech and not true.
He positively set the house on fire with his excitement.
I positively peed in my pants when I saw how angry my father was.
@contrex,
Well put, Con
Liz have we yet been of any help
@dalehileman,
so this sentence is actually a figure of speech? So she didn't open any bazaar, the man is only saying that she's been very helpful?
@lizfeehily,
lizfeehily wrote:
so this sentence is actually a figure of speech? So she didn't open any bazaar, the man is only saying that she's been very helpful?
She opened plenty of bazaars. The figure of speech is that she "positively" created a draught. Because she opened so many bazaars in so many places the speaker made a figure of speech by pretending she created a sort of wind like you feel from a passing train or car going fast.
@contrex,
right, but what does the speaker really want to say? obviously this is a comment about this lady's characteristic and personality. How does this comment has anything to do with "her inability to say no".
@lizfeehily,
The woman creates a draught (or draft of wind) as she rushes from one opening event to another. She says yes to all of the invitations ... nothing is really seen of her as she rushes through ... but the air movement is felt.
@ehBeth,
ah, I see. It makes sense. Thank you so much~~
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