{"id":"01KG07AF1FMH20SSSJ2P0P2Q9V","cid":"bafkreidhnsyxsrsr5ffvykimfmpfzmnrdprms4h2cflggwwetsgh42vvyy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3176,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:16:48.806Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":3133,"text":" 3000\tthey're young and all, and the girl's parents don't want her to marry the boy, but she\n 3001\tmarries him anyway. Then they keep getting older and older. The husband goes to war,\n 3002\tand the wife has this brother that's a drunkard. I couldn't get very interested. I mean I\n 3003\tdidn't care too much when anybody in the family died or anything. They were all just a\n 3004\tbunch of actors. The husband and wife were a pretty nice old couple--very witty and all--\n\n\n 3005\tbut I couldn't get too interested in them. For one thing, they kept drinking tea or some\n 3006\tgoddam thing all through the play. Every time you saw them, some butler was shoving\n 3007\tsome tea in front of them, or the wife was pouring it for somebody. And everybody kept\n 3008\tcoming in and going out all the time--you got dizzy watching people sit down and stand\n 3009\tup. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the old couple, and they were very good, but I\n 3010\tdidn't like them much. They were different, though, I'll say that. They didn't act like\n 3011\tpeople and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew\n 3012\tthey were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good. When one\n 3013\tof them got finished making a speech, the other one said something very fast right after it.\n 3014\tIt was supposed to be like people really talking and interrupting each other and all. The\n 3015\ttrouble was, it was too much like people talking and interrupting each other. They acted a\n 3016\tlittle bit the way old Ernie, down in the Village, plays the piano. If you do something too\n 3017\tgood, then, after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not\n 3018\tas good any more. But anyway, they were the only ones in the show--the Lunts, I mean--\n 3019\tthat looked like they had any real brains. I have to admit it.\n 3020\tAt the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What\n 3021\ta deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their\n 3022\tears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they\n 3023\twere. Some dopey movie actor was standing near us, having a cigarette. I don't know his\n 3024\tname, but he always plays the part of a guy in a war movie that gets yellow before it's\n 3025\ttime to go over the top. He was with some gorgeous blonde, and the two of them were\n 3026\ttrying to be very blasé and all, like as if he didn't even know people were looking at him.\n 3027\tModest as hell. I got a big bang out of it. Old Sally didn't talk much, except to rave about\n 3028\tthe Lunts, because she was busy rubbering and being charming. Then all of a sudden, she\n 3029\tsaw some jerk she knew on the other side of the lobby. Some guy in one of those very\n 3030\tdark gray flannel suits and one of those checkered vests. Strictly Ivy League. Big deal.\n 3031\tHe was standing next to the wall, smoking himself to death and looking bored as hell.\n 3032\tOld Sally kept saying, \"I know that boy from somewhere.\" She always knew somebody,\n 3033\tany place you took her, or thought she did. She kept saying that till I got bored as hell,\n 3034\tand I said to her, \"Why don't you go on over and give him a big soul kiss, if you know\n 3035\thim? He'll enjoy it.\" She got sore when I said that. Finally, though, the jerk noticed her\n 3036\tand came over and said hello. You should've seen the way they said hello. You'd have\n 3037\tthought they hadn't seen each other in twenty years. You'd have thought they'd taken\n 3038\tbaths in the same bathtub or something when they were little kids. Old buddyroos. It was\n 3039\tnauseating. The funny part was, they probably met each other just once, at some phony\n 3040\tparty. Finally, when they were all done slobbering around, old Sally introduced us. His\n 3041\tname was George something--I don't even remember--and he went to Andover. Big, big","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG07252MX4J6CZDGDQKZRH28","peer_label":"17","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:16:49.265Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:16:49.265Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}