The Square Egg, and Other Sketches, by Saki

“How well he reads our sex,” murmured Mrs Gramplain, “and yet how badly he plays bridge!”

“There is one character in fiction one hears no end of, but no one has ever seen her repre... more

“Once again Duncombe experienced the uncomfortable certainty of being face to face with a ... more

“The camel is old—horribly, mustily old—and it is difficult to conceive that it has ever b... more

“‘I laid a trap for you; I told you that I had never met Mrs. Saltpen-Jago. As a matter of... more

“‘It seems there is just one way out of the tangle. He’s inclined to be amorous.’”

“‘We can’t keep shifting Mr. Chermbacon backwards and forwards as though he was the regula... more

“‘As your mother says, you are a mass of selfishness.’”

“Yealmton and his wife waged a politely reticent warfare; it was a struggle which Thirza k... more

“How long would she struggle in those unfathomed weed-grown depths before she lay as pictu... more

“In Burma it is possible to be a politician without ceasing to be a philosopher.”

“Most of those terms are probably wrong, but a little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of e... more

“To the average modern Russian a desire to visit Pskoff is an inexplicable mental freak on... more

“It is, indeed, no small triumph to have combined the untrammelled liberty of primeval sav... more

“Bidderdale’s attention was caught by an item on a loose sheet of agenda paper: ‘Vote on a... more

“It takes all sorts to make a sex.”

“The lark would suddenly dash skyward and pour forth a song of ecstatic jubilation that so... more

“Much more to be thought about than the enemy over yonder or the war all over Europe is th... more