“Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.”

“An interesting survival of mediaeval superstition," commented Flora.”

“But she had a lively acquaintaince with confinement through the works of women novelists, especially those of the unmarried ones.”

“That would be delightful,' agreed Flora, thinking how nasty and boring it would be.”

“Flora inherited, however, from her father a strong will and from her mother a slender ankle.”

“The education bestowed on Flora Poste by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged; and when they died within a few weeks of one another during the annual epidemic of the influenza or Spanish Plague which occurred in her twentieth year, she was discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living.”

“One of the disadvantages of almost universal education was the fact that all kinds of persons acquired a familiarity with one's favorite writers. It gave one a curious feeling; it was like seeing a drunken stranger wrapped in one's dressing gown.”