Madame Chantal―a large woman whose ideas always strike me as being square-shaped, like stones dressed by a mason―was in the habit of concluding any political discussion with the remark: 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap'. Why have I always imagined that Madame Chantal's ideas are square? I have no idea, but everything she says goes into that shape in my mind: a block―a large one―with four symmetrical angles.

A Day in the Country and Other Stories