" You took your time,’ she complained. He stared at her. ‘You didn’t want me here. You sent me a letter.’ She laughed until she coughed. ‘I never did!’ she said, in the tone of a younger woman who learns only now of some bravura socio-sexual faux pas achieved with the aid of alcohol a week, a month or a year before. It was one of her most effective impersonations. For a moment she seemed full of life. ‘I never did! "

― M. John Harrison , The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again