There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that's all.

Of course it's all right for librarians to smell of drink.

There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.

She had always been an unashamed reader of novels.

It was odd how one found oneself making trivial conversation on important occasions. Perhaps it was because one could not say what was really in one's mind.

Dulcie always found a public library a little upsetting, for one saw so many odd people there.

Perhaps there can be too much making of cups of tea, I thought, as I watched Miss Statham filling the heavy teapot. Did we really need a cup of tea? I even said as much to Miss Statham and she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, 'Do we need tea? she echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury...' She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind. I mumbled something about making a joke and that of course one needed tea always, at every hour of the day or night.