Did you know you could kill a person with a hatpin?" she said."I did not," he said. "Do you speak from experience? Have you murdered anybody? Not that I'd dream of criticizing.

Prying into others' private affairs is the preferred occupation of small minds.

I love these pet names," she said, gazing soulfully up into his eyes, "Nitwit. Sap skull. Termagant. How they make my heart flutter!

Silk and Shadows is something else. Like brilliant. It got under my skin as very, very few books have. It's still under my skin. Mikhal was haunting.

That's what brings in the customers: the combination of gossip and the intricate detail about the dresses, all related as drama. It has the same effect on women, I'm told, as looking at naked women has on men.

They were perfectly suited. They would speak of books the livelong day and night and bore everyone else but themselves to distraction.

We're of one mind, Grenville and I, and the mind is hers, on account of my being a man and not having one.