Is there nowhere in an American house where one may be by one's self?

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

[I]t's safer to be fond of dangerous people.

After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them and invent others.

Beauty (was)a gift which, in the eyes of New York, justified every success, and excused a certain number of failings.

There is too much sour grapes for my taste in the present American attitude. The time to denounce the bankers was when we were all feeding off their gold plate; not now! At present they have not only my sympathy but my preference. They are the last representatives of our native industries.

It was the old New York way...the way people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than "scenes", except those who gave rise to them.