“Topaz was wonderfully patient - but sometimes I wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows.”

“She is a famous artists' model who claims to have been christened Topaz - even if this is true there is no law to make a woman stick to a name like that.”

“I wonder if there isn't a catch about having plenty of money? Does it eventually take the pleasure out of things?”

“Oh, it is wonderful to wake up in the morning with things to look forward to!”

“Am I really admitting that my sister is determined to marry a man she has only seen once and doesn't much like the look of? It is half real and half pretense - and I have an idea that it is a game most girls play when they meet an eligible young men. They just...wonder.”

“She will want things to stay just as they are. She will never have the fun of hoping something wonderful and exiting may be just around the corner.”

“But I can't see how anyone could believe that you killed the bear with a pitchfork,' I said.'I didn't. I only wounded it - badly, I think, but not enough to put it out of action. It came blundering towards me, I stepped aside and it crashed head-first into the river - I could hear it threshing about in the darkness. I picked up a big stone - poor brute, I hated to do it but I had to finish it off. It gave just one groan as the stone hit it and then went down. I held the lantern high; I could see the bubbles coming up. And then I saw the dark bulk of it under the water, being carried along by the current.''But you didn't have a lantern,' I said.'He didn't have a bear,' said Topaz.”