In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set… - Edith Wharton

After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them & invent others that (one is fairly sure) don't exist — or exist in a less measure.

"She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted."

Archer received this strange communication in silence. His eyes remained unseeingly fixed on the thronged sunlit square below the window. At length he said in a low voice: "She never asked me."

A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue.