Sometimes now was enough. Sometimes it was everything.

Tears never were worth the effort of crying them.

This time her heart would not break, even though it would hurt and hurt for a long time to come. Perhaps for the rest of her life. But it would not break. She had the strength to go on alone.

The worst thing about loneliness is that it brings one face to face with oneself.

After you married, Crispin, she said, my heart was broken. I will not deny it. But I did not slip into a sort of suspended life that would be forever gray and meaningless if you did not somehow come back to me. I put back the pieces of my heart and kept on living. I am not the woman I was when I was in love with you and expecting to marry you. I am not the woman I was when I heard that you were married. I am the woman I have become in the five years since then, and she is a totally different person. I like her. I wish to continue living her life.

Was memory always as much of a burden as it could sometimes be a blessing.

The bad part is life continues. The good part is that the pain goes away.