Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories

but in real life they all smiled in rather a special way and you saw that what you had really done was serve yourself up as a conversational delight for the next coffee party.

I dare my brother to sound the horn, wanting to do it myself but not wanting to get the blame.

“If that was true there wouldn’t be hardly one marriage in this town.”

personal touch but I am so worn out tonight with all the unfamiliar pressures here that

This is the first time I ever remember taking deep breaths, consciously, for purposes of self-control. I really wanted to murder him.

That’s not a normal way for a person to behave

No. But here comes the disclosure which is not easy for me: I am a writer. That does not sound right. Too presumptuous; phony, or at least unconvincing. Try again. I write. Is that better? I try to write. That makes it worse. Hypocritical humility. Well then?

“I think it’s lovely for people to have things.”

delight in her. But she did not trust them, she could not understand; when in her life had her grandmother promised her any fine thing before?

me from Mary Fortune’s territory into the ordinary world.