Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.

I was just a screw or cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else.

You thought I was a lovelorn mistress; and I was only an expensive prostitute.

Life is the saddest thing there is, next to death.

Then stay with me a little longer,' Madame Olenska said in a low tone, just touching his knee with her plumed fan. It was the lightest touch, but it thrilled him like a caress.

He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.

The effect produced by a short story depends almost entirely on its form.