"Alfred Archibald Jones was dressed in corduroy and sat in a fume-filled Cavalier Musketeer Estate facedown on the steering wheel, hoping the judgment would not be too heavy upon him."

Part One, Archie, 1974, 1945, Chapter 1, The Peculiar Second Marriage of Archie Jones, pg. 3

"A dark line would now be drawn underneath the whole incident, underneath the whole sorry day, had something not happened that led to the transformation of Archie Jones in every particular that a man can be transformed; and not due to any particular effort on his part, but by means of the entirely random, adventitious collision on one person with another. Something happened by accident. That accident was Clara Bowden."

Part One, Archie, 1974, 1945, Chapter 1, The Peculiar Second Marriage of Archie Jones, pg. 19

"Clara saw Archie through the gray-green eyes of loss; her world had just disappeared, the faith she lived by had receded like a low...