Sinclair Lewis

“ I can't get myself to give enough thought to how you ought to hold a tea-cup."
⁠"Oh, those things don't matter--they don't matter! Besides, everybody likes you--only you're so terribly cautious that you never let them see the force and courage and all that wonderful sweet dear goodness that's in you. And as for your manners--heaven knows I'm no P. G. Wodehouse valet. But I'll teach you all I know."
⁠"Claire, I appreciate it a lot but---- I'm not so darn sure I want to learn. I'm getting scared. I watched that bird named Riggs here today. ”

“ Like a slew in the evening. But it isn't worth being a slave for. I'm not going to be a Mr. Riggs. Poor devil, he's more of a servant than any of these maids. Certainly am sorry for that poor fish. He'll have a chance to take his coat off and sit down and smoke--when he's dead!"
⁠The guests were gone; the Gilsons upstairs. Claire came running, seized Milt's sleeve, coaxed him to the davenport in the drawing-room--then sighed, and rubbed her forehead, and looked so tired that he could say nothing but, "Hope you haven't been overdoing." ”

“ Straight?" Mr. Riggs violently set his cup down on a table--Mrs. Riggs would later tell him that he'd put it down in the wrong place, but never mind. He leaned over Milt and snarled, "Offer me a cigarette. I don't know if they smoke here, and I dassn't be the first to try. Say, boy, Alaska---- I wish I was there now! Say, it beats all hell how good tea can taste in a tin cup, and how wishy-washy it is in china. Boy, I don't know anything about you, but you look all right, and when you get ready to go to Alaska, you come to me, and I'll see if I can't give you a chance to go up there. ”