I would give you my soul in a blackberry pie; and a knife to cut it with.

Verily, God hath eighteen thousand worlds; and verily, your world is one of them, and this its bright axle-tree.

Fools make news, and wise men carry it.

Where are the links of the chain ... joining us to the past?

For an hour, blended with all she could offer, something noble had been created which had nothing to do with the physical world. And from the turn of his throat, the warmth of his hair, the strong, slender sinews of his hands, something further; which had. Though she combed the earth and searched through the smoke of the galaxies there was no being she wanted but this, who was not and should not be for Philippa Somerville.

And at thirty-eight a brilliant exponent of arms and a knight of the great fighting and religious Order of St John, the Chevalier de Villegagnon had absolutely no use for common sense himself, but respected it in the laity.

Facts are the soil from which the story grows. Imagination is a last resort.