A great example of getting what one expects is from Gavin Lyall's Spy's Honor , in which an aristocrat, reduced to spying for his country, is teamed with a poor Irishman, for whom spying is a great step up in the world. At the end of one section of the book, they meet an American millionairess in Paris, and the aristocrat remarks that his colleague was not fazed at all by the potted palms and fancy decor. After all, he had been expecting a millionaire. It was like, he explained, offering a man a bucket of gin. He might never have seen such a thing, but would not be in the least surprised at what he received when he got it.
