`` I won't force Beth to come against her will.

`` Damned if I will.

How far I knew will shortly become apparent.

I worked for my Uncle ( an Uncle by marriage so you will not think this has a mild undercurrent of incest ) who ran one of those antique shops in New Orleans' Vieux Carre, the old French Quarter.

If I even hint at it do you think it will matter that you are his nephew -- and not even a blood nephew ''??

`` I don't want to be thrown out and I don't think I will.

When I show up he will know you are a good wife to have told him about it ''.

And I will greatly appreciate it if you will not tell your husband.

`` If you will pardon, I think it would be better if not.

`` I will give Mr. Roy his due for this dive.

I will make him distributor for all of Florida -- a big market.

His heart was pounding like a mighty dynamo and he was trying to think, his mind seeming to scream at him like a hurt or frightened child, `` How will I do it??

I suppose the reason is a kind of wishful thinking: don't talk about the final stages of Reconstruction and they will take care of themselves.

The design is determined emotionally: `` I must reach into myself for the spring that will send me catapulting recklessly into the chaos of event with which the dance confronts me ''.

`` What I am saying does not mean that there will henceforth be no form in art.

I will assume that we are all aware of the continuing struggle, with its limited and precarious success, toward conservatism.

I will mention two volumes of specific comment on this malaise that appeared last year.

I will reserve discussion of it for a moment, however, to return to President Kennedy.

Hence the prime issue, as I see it, is whether a democratic or free society can master technology for the benefit of mankind, or whether technology will rule and develop its own society compatible with its own needs as a force of nature.

Then, after overtures to accept a settlement and go through with a divorce, Miriam gave a ghastly echo of Mrs. Micawber by suddenly stating, `` I will never leave Mr. Wright ''.

Miriam said that she must be assured that `` that other woman, Olga, will not be in luxury while I am scraping along ''.

For pride's sake, I will not say that the coy and leering vade mecum of those verses insinuated itself into my soul.

`` I never felt better in my life '', Fiske blustered.

I would turn away from my writing in the hope of getting a good look at them but I never quite succeeded.

) hung on a hook on the wall, and underneath it I could see his tie, knotted, ready to be slipped over his head, a black badge of frayed respectability that ought never to have left his neck.

For weeks I wandered about this neighborhood of warehouses and garages, truck terminals and taxi repair shops, gasoline pumps and longshoremen's lunch counters, yet never did I cease to feel myself a stranger there.

`` I never saw him.

But there's one thing I never seen or heard of, one thing I just don't think there is, and that's a sportin' way o' killin' a man ''!!

I never wear anything at all.

`` No, I never did see his face.

I can never pronounce it ''.

Though I had a great dread of the island and felt I would never leave it alive, I eagerly wrote down everything she told me about its women.

Never, never did I offer him the exclusive rights.

`` I never heard that ''.

I never heard of a poll being taken on the question.

`` As an independent American I considered all who were not for us, and you amongst the rest, as against us, yet be assured that John Jay never ceased to be the friend of Peter Van Schaack ''.

His first inaugural address speaks of `` my country whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love ''.

But I would never have thought of it myself ''.

From her California headquarters, Miriam fired back, `` I shall never divorce Mr. Wright, to permit him to marry Olga Milanoff ''.

), I have never wanted to know what you knew of passion.

You probably would not remember, since you never seemed to remember even the same moments as I, much less their intensity, one sunny midday on Fifth Avenue when you had set out with me for some final shopping less than a week before the wedding you staged for me with such reluctance at the Farm.