“After my conscience rose from the dead, it wasn’t even acting sick.”
Angels Unawares
“There was a preacher there, though, standing on the end of a watering trough outside a saloon. He did not have much of the love of God about him, he looked like nothing on earth, and he was full of hatred for sin.”
The Majesty of the Law
“The judge, Jeffrey Chalmers, was a big man in every sense of the word. He was three-hundred pounds, but tall and muscular, about six and a half feet, and he had bushy eyebrows, and a fierce mustache. When he had his robe on, and was up behind that mahogany bench, he was visibly formidable. Not all the defendants who came before him would plead guilty, but all of them wanted to.”
A Formidable Tribunal Indeed
“He had felt as though he were going up before an implacable and terrible feminine tribunal. In his imagination, he was going to walk up to a table, with her standing behind it, a stern and beautiful expression on her face. He was going to spread all his innards out on the table before her, and he was then going to give her a huge wooden mallet, and she would do as she pleased. Given the high insult his declaration of love would naturally be to someone as noble as she was, he was confident that she would wield that heavy mallet with a will. And yet he loved her still.”
Misjudging Reactions
“He was the kind of man who thought that he never gave offense because people liked him enough to forgive him for a great deal.”
En Garde
“While he was coming up the head table, she had decided, firmly and with all the resolve she had that she would be courteous, friendly, and tart . . . She felt as though she were on the verge of a fencing match, and she had been flexing her rapier.”
Dignified Eyesores
“Taking one thing with another, the line-up of the head table, with the notable exception of Savannah, was a well-groomed collection of dignified eyesores. Savannah kind of stood out and a number of people had already decided instinctively where they would be looking during the course of the speeches and toasts.”
Which Is Pretty Flat
“Lambeth tried to court her last year and was turned down flat, flatter than a pancake made with really thin batter.”
The Word Invites It
“‘But if you failed to ask it, you might miss out on the fact that the pulchritudinous Miss Westmoreland lives there.’ He pronounced it pulchritoooodinous, savoring the word as it came out, treating it like it was a butterscotch lozenge.”
Which Works on Parakeets
“Her worries fluttered for a moment, the way her parakeet had done once in her hand for a moment. But she just put it back in the cage, and dropped the cloth over the top of it.”