Was life always like that? she wondered. A game of hide and seek in which you only occasionally found the person you wanted to be?

I'm finished with something, but I'm not beginning anything. That's wrong. When you finish something, you ought always to begin something new.

It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.

Isn't it mysterious to begin a new journal like this? I can run my fingers through the fresh clean pages but I cannot guess what the writing on them will be.

In silence the three of them looked at the sunset and thought about God.

And yet, even as she spoke, she knew that she did not wish to come back. not to stay, not to live. She loved the little yellow cottage more than she loved any place on earth. but she was through with it except in her memories.

When there are boys you have to worry about how you look, and whether they like you, and why they like another girl better, and whether they're going to ask you to something or other. It's a strain.