I watched her die many times. In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty. Only the sun was there to keep us company. We shut him out. And why not? Very soon she was as eager for what's called loving as I was - more lost and drowned afterwards.

Have all beautiful things sad destinies?

I am the only real truth I know.

Every word I say has chains round its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights. Since I was born, hasn't every word I've said, every thought I've thought, everything I've done, been tied up, weighted, chained? And mind you, I know that with all this I don't succeed. Or I succeed in flashes only too damned well. ...But think how hard I try and how seldom I dare. Think - and have a bit of pity. That is, if you ever think, you apes, which I doubt.

You can pretend for a long time, but one day it all falls away and you are alone. We are alone in the most beautiful place in the world.

As it was in the beginning, ... is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Something in her brain that still remained calm told her that she was doing a very foolish thing indeed.