"The sun was very pleasant to lie in"

"'You should bring your wife here,' she said.  'There are a lot of guys around.  Somebody would take her away from you and and when you got over it you'd be a lot happier.'

A croquet ball came rolling down the path from Teddy Blue's house.  It explained the sounds we had been hearing.  Sergei, wearing a pair of old shorts, came strolling after the ball carrying a mallet.  Another ball came down the path and a long-haired boy followed it.  Sergei ignored us and studied the position of this ball.  The long-haired boy studied the position of his ball.  Neither of them spoke.  Finally Sergei hit his ball down a little trail that led away from Leslie's house.

'There are ninety-nine wickets you have to got through,' Leslie said.  'They're all over the Lane.  The one thing you have to remember, if you start coming here, is never to move a croquet ball.  There're a couple of balls down the street that have been where they are for two years.  Everybody's afraid to move them.  The guys who started it may come back some time to finish their game.'

Pauline and Cleo came walking down the path, Pauline still in her nightgown.  They sat on the grass, and Cleo played in her mother's lap.  I lay back on the grass and considered taking a nap.  The sun was very pleasant to lie in.

'He has a bad wife,' Leslie said.  'She won't sleep with him.'

'She must be unhappy,' Pauline said."

-- Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers