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unearths some literary gems.
From The Footsteps at the Lock, by Ronald Knox:
***White wreaths of cloud sailed lazily across the distance, as if assured that they had no speaking part today.***Nigel was introduced to the odd man [i.e., a floating employee or odd-jobs man, I assume], who turned out to be a very ordinary man.***Mr. Burgess [the lock-keeper]...unskilled to close the flood-gates of his own eloquence***"[If I drowned] I might get carried down into the paper mill, and come out at the other end in folio lengths. It would be very annoying to have the account of one's own death printed on one, wouldn't it?"***"I don't know if I ever told you that at school they thought me rather a dab at mathematics.""You whispered it in my ear, darling, when we sat making love on the promenade at Southend."***"I don't know if you often go upstairs backwards, but if you have the habit, you will realize that it's apt to make your stance a little uncertain."***The other still hesitated for a moment; but it was difficult to know whether he was wondering how much the other knew, or merely collecting himself for fresh epigrams.***He was positive of the fact because he remembered discussing the matter with old Mr. So-and-so, and I could ask old Mr. So-and-so if I didn't believe him.***"It's the simplest way he could find of convincing the police that Derek isn't dead--or at any rate that he wasn't dead when Aunt Alma died, and her will took effect. After that, Derek can die as much as he wants to."***"It's quite easy to suspect a person of being in disguise; not nearly so easy to suspect him of being in undisguise."***[Re. the archetypical American] "We are terrified of hearing all about his business. He is so ready to impart information that we never ask him questions."***[Bonus: A character takes on the false name Erasmus Quirk, which, it is later revealed, has been borrowed from a real Victorian novel called Ten Thousand a Year, in which a firm of solicitors are called Quirk, Gammon, and Snap.]
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