Page "humor" Paragraph 47

The husbands of these women and others I had met in Catatonia were distinguished only in that they were, to me at least, indistinguishable.

I couldn't tell one from the other.

Like Herbert, they were all in communications: radio, television, magazines, and advertising.

One or two were writers of books ; ;

all were fellows of finite charm.

Each had developed a hair-trigger chuckle and the habit of saying `` zounds ''!!

In deference to country-squirehood.

I never thought I'd live to hear people chuckle and say `` zounds ''!!

In real life.

I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

They were `` sincere '' -- men of the too-hearty handclasp and the urgent smile.

These boys acknowledged an introduction to anybody by gently pressing one of his hands in both of theirs, while they gazed, misty-eyed with care, into the eyes of the person they were meeting.

Could such unadulterated love, for a total stranger, be credited??

They were always leaping to light cigarettes, open car doors, fill plates or glasses, and I mistrusted the whole lot of them to the same degree that I mistrusted bake shops that called themselves `` Sanitary Bake Shops ''.