“Books do furnish a room.”
“Oh, good,” said Hugh, but without enthusiasm. “By the way, here is that American novel I told you about. Let me know what you think of it.” “Anything special?” “I don’t feel happy about the chapter where Irving and Wayne listen to the whip-poor-will.” “I’ll study it.” I took Lot’s Hometown and went back to my room to ring up Hudson.”
“Literature illuminates life only for those to whom books are a necessity.”
“Feeling unable to maintain this detachment of attitude towards human- and, in especial, matrimonial- affairs, I asked whether it was not true that she had married Bob Duport. She nodded; not exactly conveying, it seemed to me, that by some happy chance their union had introduced her to an unexpected terrestrial paradise.”
“My brother is a strange fellow," said Bernard, speaking with terrible bonhomie.”
“He gave me a look of great contempt; as I supposed, for venturing, even by implication, to draw a parallel between a lack of affluence that might, literally, affect my purchase of rare vintages, and a figure of speech intended delicately to convey his own dire want for the bare necessities of life. He remained silent for several seconds, as if trying to make up his mind whether he could ever bring himself to speak to me again; and then said gruffly: 'I've got to go now.”