I have learned the power of surviving.

Oh yes. Draw your hem back from my mud, little sister.

I would know you anywhere for my true love. Whoever I was and whoever you were, I would know you at once for my true love.

I have seen sights and travelled in countries you cannot imagine. I have been afraid and I have been in danger, and I have never for one moment thought that I would throw myself at at a man for his help.

When a man wants a mystery, it is generally better to leave him mystified. Nobody loves a clever woman.

Just because one man calls him Allah and another calls him God is no reason for believers to be enemies.

And – I think you know, don’t you? – that I love you, Anne.’ I feel as if I have been living in a loveless world for too long. The last tender face I saw was my father’s when he sailed for England. ‘You do? Truly?’ ‘I do.’ He rises to his feet and pulls me up to stand beside him. My chin comes to his shoulder, we are both dainty, long-limbed, coltish: well-matched. I turn my face into his jacket. ‘Will you marry me?’ he whispers. ‘Yes,’ I say.