It was an old fashioned house --the sort of house in fact, as Strange expressed it, which a lady in a novel might like to be persecuted in.

Well, I suppose one ought not to employ a magician and then complain that he does not behave like other people.

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

Unfortunately, Childermass's French was so strongly accented by his native Yorkshire that Minervois did not understand and asked Strange if Childermass was Dutch.

Mr. Robinson was a polished sort of person. He was so clean and healthy and pleased about everything that he positively shone - which is only to be expected in a fairy or an angel, but is somewhat disconcerting in an attorney.

An explorer cannot stay at home reading maps other men have made.

I was told once by some country people that a magician should never tell his dreams because the telling will make them come true. But I say that is great nonsense.