Status Updates From Embarrassments (Henry James...

Suddenly, with a little moan that was barely audible, she dropped upon the sofa. She was dead. What unknown "little rub" had dealt her the blow? What shock, in the name of wonder, had she had in town?

" You can't make a sow's ear of a silk purse! It's grievous indeed if you like—there are people who can't be vulgar for trying. He can't—it wouldn't come off, I promise you, even once. It takes more than trying—it comes by grace."

"Then what style of thing do they want?" "Something more chatty." "More?" I cried, aghast. "More gossipy, more personal. They want 'journalism.' They want tremendous trash." "Why, that's just what his letters have been!" "So Ray himself declares. He says he has stooped so low." "Very well—he must stoop lower."

" He had fallen in love as he might have broken his leg, and the fracture was of a sort that would make him permanently lame."

"Not only had I lost the books, but I had lost the man himself: they and their author had been alike spoiled for me. I knew too which was the loss I most regretted. I had liked the man still better than I had liked the books."

This is a collection of 4 novellas:
The Figure in the Carpet
Glasses
The Next Time
The Way It Came