I believe there is something on this earth that you desire more than anything, and it isn't me.

If you were closer, I'd slap you," she said. "Let me help," I replied, and stepped closer. She promptly slapped me, which surprised me only a little. We glared at each other in the near dark, and then she looked away. "I'm sorry I slapped you," she said. "That's all right. I quite enjoyed it.

We did it!" I said, feeling limp with relief. "It actually worked!" Dr. Turgenev rubbed his forehead. "I had very big doubts." "Big doubts?" I said weakly. The Russian scientist shrugged. "I am pessimist," he said.

You've no fear of heights," puffed the girl. "None," I said. "I've heard that about you.

There is a passion in you that scares me.

You can't eat [literature], that's the problem," he said. "I've tried, it's very dry, and not at all nutritious.

I'm cursed with this puritanical streak that makes me want everything to be about something. It's a terrible affliction.