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““There was something decidedly unpleasant about him, sinister, at the same time absurd, that combination of the ludicrous and alarming soon to be widely experienced by contact with those set in authority in wartime.””

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“I hate anything superficial. But I will take the book and look at it, and tell you what I think of the writing.”

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“It is rather an occasion, darling,’ said Moreland, vexed at these objections. ‘After all, I am noted among composers for the smallness of my…

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“There seemed no particular object in avoiding banality from the start, as the evening showed every sign of developing into a banal one.”

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Dinner at the Huntercombes possessed only two dramatic features: the wine was a farce and the food a tragedy

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“Even then I did not recognise the quest for power.”

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