“It was my definite conviction that the family had never behaved worse, that they had never been more obtuse and dull. I explained to Bill that Sunday lunch was always awful.
“‘It’s like home,’ Bill said, ‘it’s like home anywhere.’
“‘Is it that way where you live?’ I asked.
“‘It’s that way anywhere. God Almighty, it’s sad.’
“‘Why is it sad?’ I asked.
“‘It’s sad,’ Bill said, ‘because they try so hard. It’s sad because we don’t like anything they do. We’re thinking about one sort of thing, and they’re thinking about something else.’
“It was the first time I realized Bill was clever.”
John P. Marquand, H.M. Pulham, Esquire