“They were a society whose chief vocations were to entertain and be entertained ...”

“The headiest loves were the loves that couldn't be.”

“They were all dressed in their finest as though life really were some magical stage play in which every moment ought to be illuminated with its own bright spotlight.”

“But in that moment she realized how false most smiles were and what a tremendous waste of time.”

“Recurrent memories of Henry Schoonmaker were the most exciting thing to happen in her conscious mind these days.”

“Among her other talents were forgetting what she did not like and ignoring what she preferred not to see.”

“Diana felt she was beginning to understand why, in all those novels she read, the headiest loves were the loves that couldn't be.”