unearths some literary gems.
From Men at Work, by Honor Tracy:
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"Letters, Mr. B. Two on 'em," said a strange gusty voice that seemed to whistle up from nowhere and have nothing to do with a throat.
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"I tell you, give us a novel. We are all of us longing for a novel." He sounded, as the Pilkington brothers [literary agents] always did, as if a novel were a cake or a pudding.
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He listened to himself with pleasure as he uttered these lofty words, thinking they went very well with the chandelier and the velvet curtains.
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In his absence Dr. Frosch had lit a cigar of ominous length and was eager for conversation.
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"You never going to keep your big mouth shut?" Iris inquired, more in the manner of a Greek chorus than as one expecting a reply.
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Delilah refused to accept them on the grounds of their being stale. In her view a telegram once opened, like a bottle of champagne, lost all its fizz.
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It had always been a matter or pride and joy with him that he was attached to so vigorous and pioneering an organization; but there were times he could have wished himself in some fusty old-world setup where the primary aim was education rather than luring away of students from rival establishments.
***
[Bonus: The protagonist's eccentric, quasi-illiterate mother-in-law gently describes him as "crazy," with "his head full of ink where the brains ought to be."]
