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

`` Now that Bruno Walter is virtually in retirement and my dear friend Dimitri Mitropoulos is no longer with us, I am probably the only one -- with the possible exception of Leonard Bernstein -- who has this special affinity for and champions the works of Bruckner and Mahler ''.

There is probably some significance in the fact that two of the best incest stories I have encountered in recent years are burlesques of the incest myth.

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.

after all, the large ( and probably unreliable ) Reader's Digest literature on the `` most unforgettable character I ever met '' deals with village grocers, country doctors, favorite if illiterate aunts, and so forth.

I should have replied, `` I probably know something about the best part of you ''.

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

Or am I taking something that could really apply to almost anybody, and forgetting that many other people probably have had a similar experience ''??

I practically had to sign your life away, you'll probably fire me for some of the deals I had to go for, but '' --

Instead -- and not just to prove my objectivity -- I hasten to report that it's a highly amusing film which probably does a fairly accurate job of reporting on the Easter vacation shenanigans of collegians down in Fort Lauderdale, and that it seems to come to grips quite honestly with the moral problem that most commonly vexes youngsters in this age group -- that is to say, sex.

`` I don't know much about them '', Owen admitted, `` but I suppose they have their own religion and they probably resent outsiders coming in and telling them what to do and what not to do ''.

`` I have these appointments in town for Saturday, and I'll probably spend Sunday with Dolly or the Thaxters ''.

`` Yes, I thought you'd probably be up.

`` I always imagined I would probably end up marrying a minister or somebody like that.

However, in 1513 and 1514 Dürer created his three most famous engravings: Knight, Death, and the Devil ( 1513, probably based on Erasmus's treatise Enichiridion militis Christiani ), St. Jerome in his Study, and the much-debated Melencolia I ( both 1514 ).

`` 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.

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.

When one of the men in the hall behind us spat on the floor and scraped his boot over the gob of spittle I noticed how the clerk winced.

By counting the number of stalls and urinals I attempted to form a loose estimate of how many men the hall would hold at one time.

I had for some time been hoping, in vain, for one of the dim figures to pass between the fan vents and myself.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

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

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 ''!!

Adios '', I said, exhausting my Spanish vocabulary on my host and exchanging one of a scarcely-tapped store of smiles with my host's daughters.

I seized the rack and made a western-style flying-mount just in time, one of my knees mercifully landing on my duffel bag -- and merely wrecking my camera, I was to discover later -- my other knee landing on the slivery truck floor boards and -- but this is no medical report.

Seeming much relieved, she smiled one of those worth-waiting-for smiles, and I smiled all the way into the bedroom.

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.

I dismissed these feelings as wishful thinking but I could not get it out of my head that we had a strong physical attraction for one another and we both feared to dwell on it because of our relationship.

I don't even remember who wrote it but it was one of those 15th or 16th century poets.

I felt that he looked at me coldly and appraisingly and seemed to be uncertain what his attitude towards me should be, but he did not say one word which might indicate that he had been told of advances to his wife.

Of course, males play a role there, but believe me when I say you wouldn't enjoy yourself one bit on Eromonga.

I clapped the big man with the bleached hair on his shoulder and said heartily, hoping it would make an impression on the women: `` This one is the maku Frayne.