Once Outside The Magic Circle

Novel Writing Is A Kind Of Private Pleasure, Even If Nothing Comes Of It In Worldly Terms.

I Pulled Myself Up And Told Myself To Stop These Ridiculous Thoughts, Wondering Why It Is That We Can Never Stop Trying To Analyse The Motives Of People Who Have No Personal Interest In Us, In The Vain Hope Of Finding That Perhaps They May Have Just A Little After All.

Of Course It's All Right For Librarians To Smell Of Drink.

Oh, But It Was Splendid The Things Women Were Doing For Men All The Time, Thought Jane. Making Them Feel, Perhaps Sometimes By No More Than A Casual Glance, That They Were Loved And Admired And Desired When They Were Worthy Of None Of These Things - Enabling Them To Preen Themselves And Puff Out Their Plumage Like Birds And Bask In The Sunshine Of Love, Real Or Imagined, It Didn't Matter Which.

My Thoughts Went Round And Round And It Occurred To Me That If I Ever Wrote A Novel It Would Be Of The 'stream Of Consciousness' Type And Deal With An Hour In The Life Of A Woman At The Sink.