Among her other talents were forgetting what she did not like and ignoring what she preferred not to see.

There was plenty of life left and if he had to he would use it all to get her back. The time had passed for making promises to her-all that was left for him was to act.

Diana felt she was beginning to understand why, in all those novels she read, the headiest loves were the loves that couldn't be.

They were all dressed in their finest as though life really were some magical stage play in which every moment ought to be illuminated with its own bright spotlight.

So this was betrayal. It was like being left alone in the desert at dusk without water or warmth. It left your mouth dry and will broken. It sapped your tears and made you hollow.

So this is how life was, she thought with a faint smile: It wore you down until you emerged at its wildest, most unexpected ends.

Heart-stopping envy is the sincerest form of flattery.