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.

The living are made of nothing but flaws. The dead, with each passing day in the afterlife, become more and more impeccable to those who remain earthbound.

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

Oh yes, well, I find myself unconventional everywhere.

THE LUXE IS . . . Pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn. Irresistible boys with mischievous smiles and dangerous intentions. White lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hookups. This is Manhattan in 1899.

She felt so much aware of her own beauty it seemed inconceivable that everybody else wouldn't notice the difference too.

Even when a girl is married she still never completely leaves her mother and father's home.