'But, darling, do you know any?'
'Why, yes, I know several: Damn's one, only daddy forbade me to say it once, and somehow I've never got into the way of it, and since the war I say Hell sometimes, not that I mean to swear, only it does seem like Hell.'
'The Germans seem inspired by the devil, if that's what you mean,' said Ross.
'And I say "infernal" sometimes. Daddy told me I might.'
'I bet he didn't, Meg.'
'He did, I tell you, if I always thought of Devonshire when I said it.'
'Daddy is topping,' said my brother, as he remembered the old joke, 'well, go on.'
'I think that's all I know,' I replied.
'Oh, he said, 'how white women are. I wish they were all I knew.'
'But surely, Ross, not knowing a thing doesn't make a person "white." If you know a lot and don't say them, by the grace of God, I should have thought that was being "white."'