`` That was a terrible thing to do '', I said to Oso.

`` That quirt -- I ought to use it on you, where it would do the most good.

Having nothing else to do except wait for my forms to be processed, I gave myself over to speculations concerning the hall itself.

As I had expected, he insisted that my visits to the hall would do nothing to further the process of my application.

When I asked him what, if anything, I could do about it, he surprised me by referring me to the director of the hall.

As he lowered himself on the chair behind his desk I wondered what this dapper, slightly ridiculous man could possibly have to do with the workings of the hall.

He said in a studied voice, `` I didn't do it for you.

Don't like to bother no one unless we have to, which I figger we do, in your case.

You think that Highlands swindled you and I helped 'em do it.

I just do what I'm told, and '' --

`` You and I have a little talking to do, Jess.

`` So help me, Crouch, I'd like to kill you where you stand, but, before I do, I'm going to hear you admit killing him.

I don't mean to pry, but do they hide the swimsuit with the bubbles??

`` I really do have something important to tell you, Mr. Scott.

I could show what I can do ''.

As far as I was concerned, she had already and had dandily shown what she could do.

`` Only when I do it ''.

If it were not for an old professor who made me read the classics I would have been stymied on what to do, and now I understand why they are classics ; ;

Why she married him I do not know.

`` I know what we can do '', I said.

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

`` I mean, we don't have any way to get there and we can't expect you to quit work just to take us to town ''.

I think you're mean and hateful and stupid, and -- louder ''??

`` What else would I mean, anyways ''??

I mean, surely we've '' --

I mean: Is advertising honest??

Did, I mean ''.

`` I think I know what you mean, Brassnose '', I said.

`` No, I mean how'd you get her to do it ''??

I didn't mean to pull so hard ''.

Certainly not, I mean, no that isn't what I said ''!!

When I question them as to what they mean by concepts like liberty and democracy, I find that they fall into two categories: the simpler ones who have simply accepted the shibboleths of their faith without analysis ; ;

I take this to mean that the intelligent -- and therefore necessarily cynical??

I don't mean a few aesthetes who play about with sensations, like a young prince in a miniature dabbling his hand in a pool.

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

You see what I mean??

Here I do not mean catharsis, the discharge of emotion.

I mean something more like Freud's concept of the utility of `` play '' to a small child: he plays `` house '' or `` doctor '' or `` fireman '' as a way of mastering slightly frightening experiences, reliving them imaginatively until they are under control.

Anyone who has watched children develop a taste for literature will understand what I mean.

I use this term to mean three things: a search for the human significance of an event or state of affairs, a tendency to look at wholes rather than parts, and a tendency to respond to these events and wholes with feeling.

I mean ''