“She was made for untidy rooms and rumpled beds.”

“Cecilia knew she could not go on wasting her days in the stews of her untidied room, lying on her bed in a haze of smoke, chin propped on her hand, pins and needles spreading up through her arm as she read her way through Richardson's Clarissa.”

“You haven't seen untidiness until you've seen a room where gravity has failed twice in different directions.”

“i've made room for you, she said. if you want it, there's room. ”

“The living room was still dark, because of the heavy growth of the shrubbery the owner had allowed to mask the windows. I put a lamp on and mooched a cigarette. I lit it. I stared down at him. I rumpled my hair which was already rumpled. I put the old tired grin on my face.”

“Nature is all very well in her place, but she must not be allowed to make things untidy.”