[□]? □
[□=□]? □
[□ & □]? □
Not one of the celebrity journalists recognized him , and they would have , had he been a power broker in this town of glittering fantasies and celluloid dreams . Lace place mats , starched white napkins , and an array of glasses accompanied each place setting . Her father 's work as an economic consultant to public and private institutions alike , and his brief term as undersecretary to the Cuban ambassador , meant the Montgomerys had an array of personal friends and professional colleagues , and the family 's elegant town house was a gathering place for what she 'd been raised to think of as the best of Beacon Hill society . In his anxiety he had forgot - ten that his only means of making me understand was to talk my language , so he jabbered away in his native German . The city of poets . For argument 's sake , let 's make her one of the youngish ones , who lives in a twelve-room apartment on East Seventy-something Street . Jean Pierre Michel raised his bony knees , and the pumice moon bobbed gently on the surface of the water .