He paused for effect, looking around the table, which was decorated for the occasion with two great glass vases filled nearly to the top with pondwater, teeming with live miniature frogs. “We’ve survived, by my count, five raids by the police, three nights on the S.S. Sinaïa, the unfortunate sight of Jay Allen’s naked corpus, and at least two hundred and thirty instances of my own pomposity. We have shed our illusions as to the limits of our own absurdity, an admirable achievement in any season. We have survived privations of food and excesses of liquor. And for all this we have to thank
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