Quite like old times,' the room says.

Today I must be very careful, today I have left my armor at home.

It's funny, he said, have you ever thought that a girl's clothes cost more than the girl inside them?

I took the red dress down and put it against myself. 'Does it make me look intemperate and unchaste?' I said.

My life, which seems so simple and monotonous, is really a complicated affair of cafés where they like me and cafés where they don't, streets that are friendly, streets that aren't, rooms where I might be happy, rooms where I shall never be, looking-glasses I look nice in, looking-glasses I don't, dresses that will be lucky, dresses that won't, and so on.

No past to make us sentimental, no future to embarrass us...a difficult moment when you are out of practice - a moment that makes you go cold, cold and wary.

Would you like a whiskey?' I say. 'I've got some.' (That's original. I bet nobody's ever thought of that way of bridging the gap before.)