The Remains of the Day

The evening is the best part of the day. Stevens finally learns to read light, too late to matter.

He never unstained the dignity. And it cost him the one person who laughed at his jokes.

Miss Kenton's letter, she read it as love. It was. Twenty years late, on a rented car's radio.

The banter practice behind closed doors. Saddest comedy writing in English.

Lord Darlington's appeasement, a butler's whole life spent serving a mistake.

The socialist doctor was right in the kitchen and the bedrooms. Wisdom under the stairs.

Stevens cries at the pier with a stranger. Class can even outsource your grief.

The pigeon in the hall at Darlington Hall. Even the house was waiting for someone to leave.

Still the same employer, he says. Loyalty to a grave is just stubbornness in a suit.

Carried out of it: use your evening. The remains are still yours to spend.