Curious how Love destroys every vestige of that politeness which the human race, in its years of evolution, has so painfully acquired.

Happiness can never hope to command so much interest as distress.

And when April like an over-lustful lover leaped upon the lush flanks of the Downs there would be yet another child in the wretched hut down on Nettle Flitch Field, where Meriam housed the fruits of her shame.

She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple.

Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.

Well,' said Mrs Smiling, 'it sounds an appalling place, but in a different way from all the others. I mean, it does sound interesting and appalling, while the others just sound appalling.

Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation?