When I see a beautiful shell like that I can't help feeling a regret about what's inside it.

Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.

No one should live beyond 30.

Then she added in a sort of childish delight: 'We'll be poor, won't we? Like people in books. And I'll be an orphan and utterly free. Free and poor! What fun!' She stopped and raised her lips to him in a delighted kiss. 'It's impossible to be both together,' said John grimly. 'People have found that out. And I should choose to be free as preferable of the two.

I am too much a moralist at heart, and really want to preach at people in some acceptable form, rather than entertain them.

If you are strong enough, there are no precedents.

The bottle of whiskey - the second one - was now in constant demand by all present, excepting Catherine, who 'felt just as good on nothing at all.