Well, what do you want me to do—marry you?” exploded Bill.
-- Bill (Section I)

Importance: This line of dialogue, delivered from Bill to Emmy in the first section, is one of the very first things that Bill will say to his future wife. The line foreshadows Bill and Emmy’s eventual marriage and primes the reader to be thinking of them romantically, while also humorously pointing to the difference in power dynamic between the two.

He hesitated; there were two versions about Harvard, and he decided suddenly on the true one.
-- Bill (Section I)

Importance: This quote occurs during the first section of the story, at a moment when Bill and Emmy are out to lunch together and first getting to know each other. That Bill should have “two versions” of his experience going to school at Harvard shows his tendency to build himself up and sugarcoat the truth; that he shares the “true” version of his...