“So close to the powers of evil she must have lived that she still breathed more freely in their air.”

“She had been bored all afternoon by Percy Gryce... but she could not ignore him on the morrow, she must follow up her success, must submit to more boredom, must be ready with fresh compliances and adaptibilities, and all on the bare chance that he might ultimately decide to do her the honour of boring her for life.”

“Xingu!" she scoffed. "Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more about it than she did—unprepared though we were—that made Osric Dane so furious. I should have thought that was plain enough to everybody!”

“The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.”

“Her whole being dilated in an atmosphere of luxury. It was the background she required, the only climate she could breathe in.”

“She had everything she wanted, but she still felt, at times, that there were other things she might want if she knew about them.”

“Ah, good conversation — there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.”