It is obvious enough for the reader to conclude, "She loves young Emerson." A reader in Lucy's place would not find it obvious. Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice, and we welcome "nerves" or any other shibboleth that will cloak our personal desire. She loved Cecil; George made her nervous; will the reader explain to her that the phrases should have been reversed?

Only a struggle twists sentimentality and lust together into love.

Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes.

Science is better than sympathy, if only it is science.

“It is Fate that I am here,” persisted George. “But you can call it Italy if it makes you less unhappy.”

A novelist can shift view-point if it comes off. ... Indeed, this power to expand and contract perception (of which the shifting view-point is a symptom), this right to intermittent knowledge - I find one of the great advantages of the novel-form ... this intermittence lends in the long run variety and colour to the experiences we receive.

At night, when the curtains are drawn and the fire flickers, my books attain a collective dignity.