There were people whom you positively ached to please. If you failed with such people they would put you into a category in their minds where they could kee you and have contempt for you forever.

Country manners. Even if somebody phones up to tell you your house is burning down, they ask first how you are.

I was amazed as people must be who are seized and kidnapped, and who realize that in the strange world of their captors they have a value absolutely unconnected with anything they know about themselves.

Why is it a surprise to find that people other than ourselves are able to tell lies?

She sits in her usual ample armchair, with piles of books and unopened magazines around her. She sips cautiously from the mug of weak herb tea which is now her substitute for coffee. At one time she thought that she could not live without coffee, but it turned out that it is really the warm large mug she wants in her hands, that is the aid to thought or whatever it is she practices through the procession of hours, or of days.

Moments of kindness and reconciliation are worth having, even if the parting has to come sooner or later.

Speculation can be more gentle, can take its time, when it is not driven by desire.