The Square Egg, and Other Sketches, by Saki Richard Crowest

“How well he reads our sex,” murmured Mrs Gramplain, “and yet how badly he plays bridge!”

“There is one character in fiction one hears no end of, but no one has ever seen her represented in portrait or in the flesh.”

“Once again Duncombe experienced the uncomfortable certainty of being face to face with a tragedy whose nature he could not guess at.”

“The camel is old—horribly, mustily old—and it is difficult to conceive that it has ever been anything else.”

“‘I laid a trap for you; I told you that I had never met Mrs. Saltpen-Jago. As a matter of fact I met her at lunch on Monday last. She is a pronounced blonde.’”

“‘It seems there is just one way out of the tangle. He’s inclined to be amorous.’”