I'd like to see you do it!

 Miss Peavey eyed a clump of bushes some dozen yards farther down the drive. They were quivering slightly, as though tthey sheltered some alien body; and Miss Peavey, whose temper was apt to be impatient, registered a resolve to tell Edward Cotes that, if he couldn't hide behind a bush without dancing about like a cat on hot bricks, he had better give up his profession and take to selling jellied eels. In which, it may be mentioned, she had wronged her old friend. He had been as still as a statue until a moment before, when a large and exitable beetle had fallen down the space between his collar and his neck, an experience which might well have tried the subtlest woodsman.

(from Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

The first is the hardest

     "A noble emotion," said Psmith courteously. "When did you feel it coming on?"

    "I've been in love with her for months. But she won't look at me."

    "That, of course," agreed Psmith, "must be a disadvantage. Yes, I should imagine that that would stick the gaff into the course of true love to no small extent."

    "I mean, won't take me seriously, and all that. Laughs at me, don't you know, when I propose. What would you do?"

    "I should stop proposing," said Psmith, having given the matter thought.

    "But I can't."

    "Tut, tut!" said Psmith severely. "And, in case the expression is new to you, what I mean is 'Pooh, pooh!' Just say to yourself, 'From now on I will not start proposing until after lunch.' That done it will be an easy step to do no proposing during the afternoon. And by degrees you will find that you can give it up altogether. Once you have conquered the impulse for the after-breakat proposal, the rest will be easy. The first ne of the day is always the hardest to drop."

(from Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehoue)

That will make them sit up and take notice

     "You know Miss Peavey's work, of course?" said Lady Constance, smiling pleasantly on her two celebrities.

    "Who does not?" said Psmith courteously.

    "Oh, do you?" said Miss Peavy, gratification causing her slender body to perform a sort of ladylike shimmy down its whole length. "I scarcely hoped that you would know my name. My Canadian sales have not been large."

    "Quite large enough," said Psmith. "I mean, of couse," he added with a paternal smile, "that, while your delicate art may not have a universal appeal in a young country, it is intensely appreciated by a small and select body of the intelligentsia."

    And if that was not the stuff to give them, he reflected with not a little complacency, he was dashed.

(from Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Weird. There's no other word for her.

 Miss Peavey often had this effect on the less soulful type of man, especially in the mornings, when such men are not at their strongest and best. When she came into the breakfast-room of a country house, brave men who had been up a bit late the night before quailed and tried to hide behind newspapers. She was the sort of woman who tells a man who is propping his eyes open with his fingers and endeavoring to correct a headache with strong tea that she was up at six watching the dew fade off the grass, and didn't he think that those wisps of morning mist were the elves' bridal veils.

(from Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

One tough babe

 Aesthetically, he admired Lady Constance's appearance, but he could not conceal from himself that in the peculiar circumstances he would have preferred something rather more fragile and drooping. Lady Constance conveyed the impression that anybody who had the choice between stealing anything from her and stirring up a nest of hornets with a short walking-stick would do well t choose the hornets.

(from Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

"Across the pale parabola of joy"

     This is a phrase taken from the collection of poems written by Ralston McTodd and entitled "Songs of Squalor." The characters in the story (especially Psmith) spend a great deal of time trying to figure out what it means. The book which contains the story is entitled Leave It To Psmith, authored by Sir Pelham Wodehouse.

How to make a nuisance of himself

     "But, Eve, were you only joking when you asked Clarkie to find you something to do? She took you quite seriously."

    "No, I wasn't joking. There's a drawback to my going to Blandings. I suppose you know the place pretty well?"

    "I've often stayed there. It's beautiful."

    "Then you know Lord Emsworth's second son, Freddie Threepwood?"

    "Of course."

    "Well, he's the drawback. He wants to marry me, and I certainly don't want to marry him. And what I've been wondering is whether a nice easy job wlike that, which would tide me over beautifully till September, is attractive enough to make up for the nuisance of having to be always squelching poor Freddie. I ought to have thought of it right at the beginning, of course, but when he wrote and told me to apply for the position, but I was so delighted at the idea of regular work that it didn't occur to me. Then I began to wonder. He's such a persevering young man. He proposes early and often."

(from Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)