“To James's intimates, however, these elaborate hesitancies, far from being an obstacle, were like a cobweb bridge flung from his mind to theirs, an invisible passage over which one knew that silver-footed ironies, veiled jokes, tiptoe malices, were stealing to explode a huge laugh at one's feet.”

Source: A Backward Glance http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200271.txt (1934), Ch. 8

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Edith Wharton103

American novelist, short story writer, designer 1862–1937

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