″‘If you could do anything in the world this afternoon, what would you do?’ enquired Uncle Parker, his eyes still closed...
‘Be immortal,’ said Jack promptly.
‘Bit pointless,’ observed Uncle Parker.”
“He even knew that they were all fond of him, in their own way. ‘But more as if I was a kind of pet, or something,’ he thought. ‘As if I’m just harmless. Not as an equal. I want to be equal.‘”
″‘What’s SD? Stone Deaf?’
‘Selectively Deaf. You hear, in effect, just as much as you wish to hear. And I am bound to say that if I were married to a lady who talks like your grandmother does, I should be SD- very much so.‘”