It is these black clothes," said Strange. "I am like a leftover piece of funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.

Strange bent over these things, with a concentration to rival Minervois's own, questioning, criticizing and proposing. Strange and the two engravers spoke French to each other. To Strange's surprize Childermass understood perfectly and even addressed one or twoquestions to Minervois in his own language. Unfortunately, Childermass's French was so strongly accented by his native Yorkshire that Minervois did not understand and asked Strange if Childermass was Dutch.

I know magicians and I know magic and I say this: all magicians lie and this one more than most.

There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what everybody does all the time.

You mean to say he became mad deliberately?' ...Nothing is more likely,' said the duke.

She wore a gown the color of storms, shadows, and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.

He hardly ever spoke of magic, and when he did it was like a history lesson and no one could bear to listen to him.