Status Updates From Trio

[…] all battles, she registered, all to do with war and conflict, as if that was what defined a nation rather than its culture.

Someone—some young person—had once said to him that the only reason to go to a party was to "score."To score sex, or drugs, drink, food, gossip, contacts, influence, advancement. If you didn't score, then that party had been a waste of your precious time. By that token he had had a pointless evening.

“[…] it was always a bit strange, not to say shattering, to suddenly meet someone out of familiar context. Hed been perfectly charming, though, of course—no doubt suffering from the same unwelcome shock as she. Charm, she thought: a very elusive English concept, very loaded. To her it meant closed, polite, coldly affable, able to make conversation about nothing.