unearths some literary gems.
***
"Want to see a trick?"
[....]
"Sure. If it's a good one."
The uncertainty of his acceptance seemed to please her. Probably, she had expected No. She would have taken Yes, unimaginative as that reply would have been. But that her trick was being measured off against other unknown and even better tricks made it pleasantly risky.
***
Plant had always considered Trueblood more of an event than a person.
***
"I'm going to have an early night," said Lady Stubbings. It was a line [in a book] that Melrose Plant could easily have dispensed with--weren't they forever having their "early nights"?--but in this case, he found the line especially excruciating and wished the whole lot of them would have an early night.
***
"I thought she married that Italian duke, or whatever."
"Count. No. He's floating in Venice. I suspect she's got cold feet. Wet feet, rather."
***
"You're carrying a cue in your oboe case," Melrose said to Tom.
[...]
"You ever try playing snooker with an oboe?"
***
"I made myself an authority on Mesopotamia; that way they think I must know a lot about everything else. It's amazing, really, how much people think you must know if you know about something nobody else much cares about."
[I could be wrong, but I think that's an actual ploy from the Stephen Potter canon.]
***
[Bonus: A character called Mrs. Withersby (not quite a Wetherbee)]
