In the O.Henry short story "The Octopus Marooned" he is telling about a scam that failed:

No, sir, it was just as I said. We were self-curbed. It was a case of auto-suppression. There was a rift within the loot, as Albert Tennyson says.

AUTHOR: Alfred Tennyson Tennyson (1809–1892)
QUOTATION: It is the little rift within the lute
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all.
ATTRIBUTION: Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 386.
BIOGRAPHY: Columbia Encyclopedia

Think of how much more work it would have been twenty years ago to track down that quote!

We're so spoiled, aren't we, wwh? And so fortunate! Thanks for bringing light to the humor in the O. Henry passage.

Tue Feb 24 14:55:24 2004

Now that's what I call an extended conversation!

Yeah, but I'm out of school for snow and have the time to return to some of wwh's previous posts. 'sides: I know he reads here.

And you should get my drifts! They're all of six inches deep, enough to waylay the most valiant of Virginia schoolbuses!