She wondered if, when human souls try to get too near each other, they do not inevitably become mere blurs to each other's vision.

Almost everybody in the neighborhood had troubles, frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had complications. To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death warrant. People struggled on for years wit

A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue.

People struggled on for years with 'troubles,' but they almost always succumbed to 'complications.

Little as she was addicted to solitude, there had come to be moments when it seemed a welcome escape from the empty noises of her life.

I swear I only want to hear about you, to know what you've been doing. It's a hundred years since we've met-it may be another hundred before we meet again.

Archer was too intelligent to think that a young woman like Ellen Olenska would necessarily recoil from everything that reminded her of her past. She might believe herself wholly in revolt against it; but what had charmed her in it would still charm her even though it were against her will.