It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high and allow you to look down upon the houses like this." I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid enough, but he soon explained himself. "Look at those big, isolated clumps of buildings rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-coloured sea." "The board-schools." "Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future.

The future was with Fate. The present was our own.

I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.

What a lovely thing a rose is!

I think that I had better go, Holmes." "Not a bit, doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell.

I never can resist a touch of the dramatic.

The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell.