unearths some literary gems.
From The Cut Direct, by Alice Tilton:
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Methodically, and with infinite accuracy, he recited "Thanatopsis" in its entirety, including the punctuation.
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[Cassie has trouble with her bifocals.]
"Last week, I went right through the bakery kitchen display window at Peirce's. Right through! And it was lemon pie day."
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"When I asked her for references, she told me candidly she didn't have any, but if I really wanted them, she knew a woman in Boston who wrote peaches at four for a dollar, and if I'd lend her the dollar--"
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"You must," said the foremost member, puffing slightly, "be Doctor MacNabb!"
Leonidas, affixing his pince-nez, bowed from the waist in a courtly manner.
"If I must, dear lady," he said, "I must."
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"They will most certainly discuss it. Ad, I should say, infinitum."
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"To think that I held the clew in my hand half the morning! I dandled it on my knee."
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His jaw was still jutting out, although no one had taken the trouble to notice it.
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"She's one of those 'You-can-afford-it-but-I-couldn't-possibly' women," Cassie continued. "She could, of course, but she doesn't."
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"Cassie's grandson has already let me down. Thud, thud--"
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His large black eyes.... lingered for several seconds on Leonidas. He was obviously thinking of Shakespeare, and his restraint in commenting on the resemblance further endeared him to Leonidas.
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Somehow, with some deft eyebrow work, she managed to convey to Rutherford the impression that these unexpected guests had thrown everything into a hideous turmoil, and that the only possible salvation lay in Rutherford's building boats with Jock.
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"Oh! Oh, how awful! Oh, please, please tell me it's my bifocals! Oh, I hope it's the bifocals!"
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"Mustache, mustache!" Cassie said. "I don't want to see or hear another mustache!"
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[People Making Up Proverbs dept.]
"I have not been able," she said, "to find that quotation in any standard compendium on Eastern proverbs and sayings. I fear you made it up. Good night."
