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They were afflicted in their happiness.
Beyond any doubt, he said to himself, this proves that bricks, as well as other things, are not as accessible as they used to be.
Cheerful and sensible though his little book of maxims was, it was no match for the melancholy that overtook him later in the day. Once again he began to feel bad in the best of environments. And he noticed that other people did too. So bad did they feel, in fact, that it took the worst of news to cheer them up.
The old spurious hope and elegance of school days came back to him. How strange it was that school had nothing whatever to do with life. The old talk of school as a preparation for life—what a bad joke. There was no relation at all. School made matters worse. The elegance and order of school had disarmed him for what came later.
Jokes always made him nervous. He had to attend to the perilous needs of the joke-teller.
we are well when we are afflicted and afflicted when we are well.
She had shaken her head but smiled, signifying she liked him better for being mistaken.
The difference between me and him, he reflected, is that I could not permit myself to be so diverted (but diverted from what?). How can one take seriously the Theory of Large Numbers, living in this queer not-new not-old place haunted by the goddess Juno and the spirit of the great Bobby Jones? But it was more than that. Something is going to happen, he suddenly perceived that he knew all along. He shivered. It is for me to wait. Waiting is the thing. Wait and watch.
The kitchenette had the close expired air of impasse.
feeling their apathy steal into his bones.
They quarreled with the skillful absent-minded malice of married couples. Instead of taking offense, they nodded sleepily and even smiled.
The book was the safest sunniest most inviolate circle of all.
He had survived the hiatus of his rage.
True, most people he knew seemed reasonably sane and happy. They played golf, kept busy, drank, talked, laughed, went to church, appeared to enjoy themselves, and in general were both successful and generous. Their talk made a sort of sense. They cracked jokes. On the other hand, perhaps it is possible, especially in strange times such as these, for an entire people, or at least a majority, to deceive themselves into believing that things are going well when in fact they are not, when things are in fact farcical.
Suddenly she remembered that she had once been an A student. But what if she flunked ordinary living?
