Prospective employer - How close to the edge of that cliff can you drive at speed? / First candidate for chauffeurship - Within two inches, easy. / P. E. - And you? / Second candidate - I have driven within half an inch. / P. E. - And you? / Third candidate. - "Sure, I would keep as far away as I could, if it cost me the job.

Hadn't she explained and described and even—though lightly, of course; she couldn't say such a thing directly—given him to understand that this was the one unforgivable thing.

He walked-ran day after day although it was a living bore, the sameness, the ritual. This extraordinary world—is this how life wants me to live it? But he ran to keep himself on keel, to wind himself into work the next morning.

One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held.