`` I don't have many strays coming to my front door '', he said.

`` 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 ''.

There's someone there I have to see.

I have to think about it.

We'll still have the rifle, and I might be able to round up some more.

As I dug in behind one of the bales we were using as protection, I grudgingly found myself agreeing with Oso's logic, especially when I imagined what would have happened to Missy if Old Knife's large party of screeching warriors had overrun our company.

I have it with me, right here.

) 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.

I was at once disappointed, although just what I had expected him to look like I could not have explained.

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.

But, by gosh, I want him and I'm going to have him!!

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

`` I have a little job for you, Charlie.

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

I would have foregone my romantic chances rather than leave a friend sweltering and dusty and -- Well, at least I wouldn't have shouted back a taunt.

At once my ears were drowned by a flow of what I took to be Spanish, but -- the driver's white teeth flashing at me, the road wildly veering beyond his glistening hair, beyond his gesticulating bottle -- it could have been the purest Oxford English I was half hearing ; ;

I wouldn't have known the difference.

`` I could use some help '', Morgan said finally, `` but I can't afford to pay you anything.

`` I know '', Jones said dejectedly.

When they were finally satisfied, Jones said, `` I think he's going to give us work ''.

She said, `` I guess the Lord looks out for fools, drunkards, and innocents ''.

He stopped, embarrassed, and Morgan said, `` I understand that, but I don't savvy why you'd go off and leave your jobs in the first place ''.

`` All my life '', he said, `` I tried.

`` I hate to leave my garden '', Gavin said.

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

`` But that was war '', I said.

`` I think Montero did right '', Amy said firmly.

`` I saw your fire '', she said, speaking slowly, making an effort to control her anger.

I meant what I said about that fire.

`` I don't mind washing dishes now and then '', he said pleasantly.

`` I ought to '' -- he said.

`` I said go home, Joseph.

I had always, I said, hankered after working hard with my hands.

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

`` Why, I meant what I said '', Lord declared.

Finally Hernandez said, `` I could offer you advice, Tomas, but you wouldn't heed it ''.

In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.

No sooner would I turn my head away from the counter before he would address me, at times quite sharply, in order to bring back my attention.

I could consult this personage on any weekday morning, though not before ten o'clock.

The clerk impressed this upon me: that I should not arrive in the hall before ten o'clock.

I've got to take Danny away from Clayton before I lose him altogether.

`` 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.

There had been a good second or two during which my muffler had been blowing out, and now I was certain I'd seen her somewhere before.

The keys were still in it, and I was miles away before I remembered that my clothes and purse and everything were still in the little cabana where I'd changed ''.

It'll probably be at least an hour or two before I can check back with you.

Shortly before nine I drove my jalopy to the street facing the Lake and parked the car in shadows far enough away from the rendezvous corner but near enough to keep the corner in clear view.

In the bedroom before the husband and wife find their way to the bed, the lights go on: `` In dull domestic radiance I watch her staring face, still blind, Start wincing in obedience To dirty waters, counters, pots and pans, Waiting below stairs, in her mind ''.

I came up maybe fifty feet before I knew what was happening ''.

They saw it before I did, even with my binoculars.

My curiosity was sharpened a day or two before the interview by a conversation I had with a well-informed teacher of literature, a Jesuit father, at a conference on religious drama near Paris.

But before I try to diagnose it, I would offer other evidence.

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.

To you, for instance, the word innocence, in this connotation, probably retained its Biblical, or should I say technical sense, and therefore I suppose I must make myself quite clear by saying that I lost -- or rather handed over -- what you would have considered to be my innocence two weeks before I was legally entitled, and in fact by oath required, to hand it over along with what other goods and bads I had.