Call me, Ishmael. Feel absolutely free to. - Peter De Vries

Let us hope," I prayed, "that a kind Providence will put a speedy end to the acts of God under which we have been laboring.

He takes satisfaction in having quite lived by his stoic creed: give what you can and take what comes. Concession not freely given is in the end forcibly extracted anyway. For we are all swimmers ephemerally buoyed by what will engulf us at the last; still dreaming of islands though the mainland has been lost; swept remorselessly out to sea while we spread our arms to the beautiful shore.

The last place to have a ball, my dear Mrs. DelBelly, is at a formal dance.