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December 20, 2004
TT: Almanac
"Class presidents and football heroes, he had finally come to learn, required careful and suspicious watching. They were like the potted hyacinths and daffodils that he sometimes bought for Sylvia in midwinter--spectacular but they often yellowed around the edges once you brought them home. The same was true with bright young men who had come along too fast. They were tired because of premature effort, or else overconfidence had made them arrogant. At best the cards were stacked against someone who made good too young. Willis could see now that he had once been in this same dubious category. He could no longer wonder, as he once had, that Mr. Beakney had made no effort to keep him. In fact Mr. Beakney must have been relieved to let him go--gray suit, trimmed hair, polished Oxfords, sharp mind and everything--because he had come along too fast for the age of twenty-nine."John P. Marquand, Sincerely, Willis Wayde
Posted December 20, 2004 12:00 PM
