I knew that three or four of them were almost always present in the hall, but what they were doing, and exactly where, I could not tell.

Was I sure, he asked, that I knew what I was applying for??

I said that it didn't make any difference to me either, as far as I knew.

How far I knew will shortly become apparent.

Two uniformed officers, a couple of plain-clothesmen I knew, and two other men stood on a gray cement area next to the pool on my left.

Something clicked in this instance, but I treated her circumspectly and I felt that she knew it, for we both kept our distance.

If it were not that I knew who it was I could have mistaken it for my Aunt so well did her clothes fit him.

`` They knew I was a good sharecrop farmer back in Carolina, but out West was a chance to build a real farm of our own.

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

I knew that a conversation with the author would not settle such questions, because a man is not the same as his writing: in the last analysis, the questions had to be settled by the work itself.

`` I knew I was carrying on with abstraction to its very end -- for me '', he said of the two years' output in Virginia.

`` It was then I knew that they were making war against Man, the individual within!!

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

I knew this knowledge to be corrupting at the time I acquired it ; ;

I remember one day when Mr. Hearst ( and I never knew why he liked me, either ) sent the Hetman a telegram: `` Please find some more reporters like that young man from Denver ''.

I guess you'd better go on in the morning ''.

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

Donald Kruger would like nothing better than to hold him as hostage, and I wouldn't entrust a snake to his tender care.

I started looking on the splintery truck bed for a piece of board, a dirt clod -- anything I could throw and with better aim than I had thrown the beer bottle.

I heard her murmur, `` We'd better lock the door ''.

He was thinking, big deal: skipper on his drunken fishing parties for seven years and no better off than when I started.

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

I think it is essential, however, to pinpoint here the difference between the two concepts of sovereignty that went to war in 1861 -- if only to see better how imperative is our need today to clarify completely our far worse confusion on this subject.

`` Madame Noel, I think you had better go '', said Mrs. Cupply.

`` And I think you had better leave '', replied Miriam.

' I think you had better leave '!!

I assume that the number of readers of this anthology who regard themselves as morally perfect is small, and that most readers are willing to consider procedures by which they may gain more insight into themselves and better understanding of others.

So far as I am concerned, the child is unmistakably father to the man, despite the obvious fact that child and father differ greatly -- sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.

`` She's probably getting old -- crotchety, I mean -- and we figured uh-uh, better not.

I knew better.

`` Chickens have short memories '', the doctor remarked, `` that's why they are better company than most people I know '', and he went on to break some important news to Alex.

`` I guess I better get ready to go ''.

and now, therefore, do I, John A. Notte, Jr., governor of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, proclaim Tuesday, October 24th, 1961, as United Nations day, calling upon all our citizens to engage in appropriate observances, demonstrating faith in the United Nations and thereby contributing to a better understanding of the aims of the United Nations throughout the land.

( An unheated greenhouse would have been better, if I had had one.

During the return trip, Barco kept muttering to himself in meaningless phrases, such as: `` They're under sand dunes They're better off, I tell you I saved their souls ''.

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

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

Still, I was disgusted with myself for agreeing with Montero's methods.

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.

Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.

Now under me I could see him for what he really was, a boy dressed up in streaks of paint.

Such was my state of mind that I did not question the possibility of this ; ;

under the circumstances I was only too willing to confess all.

I was nearly thirty at the time.

It was dark and, I sensed, very large ; ;

Sometimes I was aware of people moving about in the darkness.

This impressed me, until I realized how limited was his sphere of influence.

I felt certain he was really a spineless little man.

Once, pressing him, I learned that his job was only part-time, in the afternoons when nothing went on in the hall.

In the mornings, I was informed, fluorescent tubes, similar to the one above the counter, illuminated the entire hall.

I was shown, instead, a batch of white tickets of the sort handed out, he told me, every morning.

Now, here was something of obvious importance to me, yet when I reached for the tickets he snatched them away from my hand.

It was, I felt, possible that they were men who, having received no tickets for that day, had remained in the hall, to sleep perhaps, in the corners farthest removed from the counter with its overhead light.

I felt certain it was self-appointed.

I decided to see no more of the clerk until the processing of my papers was completed.

I was constantly searching for clues around the neighborhood of the hall.