"There it was, there it is, the place where during the best time of our lives friendship had its home and happiness its headquarters." Part 1, Chap. 1, pp. 6-7

"I suppose we were both a little depressed at leaving those colleagues, strangers though they were, unknowns with the most profound portent for our future, and going home to our cellar, where we ate stuff that was good for the budget but not especially for the soul. After dinner we sat on the wall above Lake Monona and watched the sunset, and then we went back in and I prepared for my classes and Sally read Jules Romains. We were tender with one another in bed: babes in the woods, lost in a strange indifferent country, a little dispirited, a little scared." Part 1, Chap. 2, p. 19

"All right. I admitted it: a charming woman, a woman we couldn't help liking on...