Removing a portion of chair which had got entangled in my back hair, I said with a candour that became me well: “I was looking for a mouse.” If she had replied, “Ah, yes, indeed. I understand now. A mouse, to be sure. Quite,” everything would have been nice and smooth, but she didn't. “A mouse?” she said. “What do you mean?” Well, of course, if she didn't know what a mouse was, there was evidently a good deal of tedious spadework before us, and one would scarcely have known where to start.

A girl who had been squatting at the back of the stage, smoking, stepped forward into the lamplight. She was very young, slim-shouldered, breastless […]

The more solicitous of the two was Nurse Cramer, a shapely, pretty, sexless girl with a wholesome unattractive face.

Just as he was about to plunge his wanger into Jonny, Jones arrived.