It is also true that his hair had a reddish tinge and, as everybody knows, no one with red hair can ever truly be said to be handsome.

Magic, madam, is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk.

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

It is curious and we magicians collect curiosities, you know.

And how shall I think of you?' He considered a moment and then laughed. 'Think of me with my nose in a book!

Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians. They met upon the third Wednesday of every month and read each other long, dull papers upon the history of English magic.

Houses, like people, are apt to become rather eccentric if left too much on their own; this house was the architectural equivalent of an old gentleman in a worn dressing-gown and torn slippers, who got up and went to bed at odd times of day, and who kept up a continual conversation with friends no one else could see.