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Sometimes on good days they found a forest in which to bed down: luxury began to take strange forms.
Fifteen years to scrape together two hundred rubles, a shirt and a suit, and the doctor was willing to sacrifice them to Wladek in a moment. Wladek never again in his life experienced such an act of selflessness.
From the new tutor he had learned two things: never to gamble unless the odds are tipped in your favor by your own superior knowledge or skill, and always be willing to walk away from a deal when you have reached your limit.
“Such is my expertise in these matters that I’m willing to bet you five dollars she doesn’t succumb even to the charms of William Lowell Kane.” William planned a careful stratagem. Virginity was one thing, but losing five dollars to Matthew was quite another.
That night as Abel lay awake in his small room at the Plaza Hotel, thinking about the boy, William, whose father would have been proud of him, he realized for the first time in his life exactly what he wanted to achieve. He wanted to be thought of as an equal by the Williams of this world.
He was not sure where his newly acquired knowledge would lead him, but he never doubted the Baron’s maxim that there was no true substitute for a good education.
If you have to pay a check, make it look as if the amount is of no consequence. If it is, don’t go to the restaurant again, but whatever you do, don’t comment or look surprised—something else the rich had taught him.
Despite his grandmothers’ disapproval, William accepted the Hamilton Memorial Mathematics Scholarship and at a cost of $290, treated himself to “Daisy,” the latest Model T Ford and the first real love of William’s life. He painted Daisy bright yellow, which halved her value and doubled the number of his girlfriends.
“Stop being so pathetic,” said Matthew. “You’re in love and you may as well face that fact.”
“Whatever you do, William, you won’t go far wrong if you do remember they are watching you.”
“Never listen to a politician,” said William. “Especially Roosevelt. When he says ‘never,’ that only means not today or at least not this morning.
all but a few historians will have forgotten that Poland lost more lives in the war than any other single nation on earth, including Germany.
We have your friend, Mr. Kane by the balls and I now intend to squeeze them very slowly.”
I pray that this is not the end of our relationship but until you can change your mind, “Never seek the wind in the field—it is useless to try and find what is gone.”
To kill the loneliness, he slept with some very expensive and some rather cheap women. None of them helped.
a tone that indicated that the statutory time for small talk had run out.
if you think a man might threaten you at some time, then you should keep a little more up your sleeve than your arm.
it is an ill wind….
“Old age and fear of death allows for sudden changes of the heart,” he had once read.
