am pleased that you are repentant, but you have taken far too much of my time. - Shirley Jackson

He was scrupulous about the use of his title because, his investigations being so utterly unscientific, he hoped to borrow an air of respectability, even scholarly authority, from his education.

All I could think of when I got a look at the place from the outside was what fun it would be to stand out there and watch it burn down.

The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.