"In the Best Families"

[fiefoe]

There's less world weariness in Rex Stout than say, Raymond Chandler. But as always, the attitude is the thing.

• She thinks I hate her, but that is not true. People as neurotic as I am should not be judged by normal standards.
• I thought she was illiterate, her calling you handsome—remember? But, by gum, it was merely an understatement. Here it is, absolutely kosher: ‘Handsome: moderately large.'
• and I know that you would rather put horseradish on oysters than have me think you would.
• Television is raising hell with the detective business. It used to be that a social evening at someone’s house or apartment was a fine opportunity for picking up lines and angles, moving around,
• To you he sent his regards. To me he sent his very best regards and wishes. Now shut up.
• I now realized that a man who is eccentric enough to threaten to go and live in Egypt is eccentric enough to do it,
• thought I had better open my eyes, and then decided it would show more strength of will if I kept awake with them shut.
• Also it would be interesting to see, from Wolfe’s position, what the light was like on the face of a man sitting in the red leather chair... But the springs which let the chair’s back slant to the rear were carefully adjusted to the pressure of Wolfe’s poundage, not mine, and I had to keep pushing to maintain the damn thing in the leaning position.
• on the outside chance that I might at least get a bone for my curiosity to gnaw on
• I am always ready for Inspector Cramer, in the light of experience guided by intelligence,
• “No comment,” I said politely. “If you’re right you’re right, and if you’re wrong I wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings.
• I considered the situation, told myself the thing to do was skip it, and decided that I must be hard of hearing when I became aware that I had dialed the operator and asked for the number.
• Nor could I, while drawing pay as Wolfe’s assistant, take a boat for Europe or run for Mayor of New York or buy an island and build up a harem, or any of the other things on my deferred list;
• Skipping the comedy, there aren’t many Rackhams.
• How much do you weigh?” “I’ve lost a hundred and seventeen pounds.” “Do you know what you look like?” He made a face. With the pleats and whiskers, he didn’t really have to make one, but of course it was an old habit which had probably been suppressed for months. “Yes,” he said, “I do. I look like a sixteenth-century prince of Savoy named Philibert."
• He made a face. “She is rich, intemperate, and notorious.”  “Nuts. She is well-heeled and playful."
• ... his face is pleated. You will have to fight down the feeling that you’re having a nightmare, and—” “Archie! It’s Nero Wolfe!” Goddam a woman anyhow. There was absolutely no sense or reason for it.
• It takes the strain off of tailing a man to have a date with him.
• “Well—” I considered. “It really is a guess, but with a background.
• “No,” I said, kind but firm. “You’re so damn scared it would be a temptation to bargain you out of your last pair of pants.
• Only after he had gone did it occur to me that that wouldn’t prove it wasn’t funny.
• “I was thinking, Archie. August is gone. The risk would be negligible. Get Mr. Haskins on the phone tomorrow and tell him to start a dozen chickens on blueberries. Uh—two dozen."
• The eyes were the result of an error on the assembly line. They had been intended for a shark and someone got careless.
• People must be allowed to feel that if our demands are met the outlook is not intolerable. A basic requirement for continued success in illicit enterprises is a sympathetic understanding of the limitations of the human nervous system.
• “He was a little handicapped,” I protested, “by his respect for law.” “Every man is handicapped by his own weaknesses.
• I fancy you will take my word since you admit that I match you in intellect, and to climax these five frightful months with such a bluff as this, if it were one, would be witless.
• “Yes. Now. A man has a right to have his satisfactions match his pains. I wish to use Mr. Zeck’s phone to tell Fritz to go home and get dinner ready.” I dialed the operator.