Don't go looking for boys in the dark They will say pretty things then leave you with scars. Do go looking for boys in the park For that is where the true gentlemen are.

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

After Henry's treatment of her she wasn't sure that men could honestly love women but she wanted to believe it. She wanted to be told pretty things and for the frightening clip of her heart to slow to something more reasonable.

Henry was thinking of the younger Holland sister of the way she could go from being an impetuous girl to a knowing woman in a few seconds and never lose the stars in her eyes.

A young lady's most natural ally is her sister although sometimes our own relatives are as inscrutable to us as an antipodean.

He was a mystery to her, and every time she tried to solve him it caused her a little more pain. But when she tired to give him up he pursued her in her thoughts, stronger each time.

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.