“My step-mother looked at me at least once on each of these miserable days, and said: 'Rose-Marie, you look very odd. I hope you are not going to have anything expensive. Measles are in Jena, and also the whooping-cough.''Which of them is the cheapest?' I inquired.'Both are beyond our means,' said my step-mother severely.”

“All mothers are proud of their children, Jena. I would have been very proud of my child if I had gotten the chance to know him or her. Someday, if you become a mother, you will be proud of your children. It is just the way mothers are.”

“I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by my wrist and pushed me back into my chair. 'It is both, or none,' said he. 'You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me.”

“We are well," Hugh said, looking me over with more intensity than seemed proper. "And you?""I'm well, thank you," I said, lying through my teeth. I'd been better the day I took to my bed with measles.”

“I'll be right behind you"behind her? Thirty-two steps with him looking at her butt?"No, you wont.""Look, it's late, i'm tired, can we just-""it'll be a cold day in hell when you follow me up those steps. You want to go up, you go first.""Why?" he said mystified"you're not looking at my rear end all the way up that hill."Cal sighed and took the first step. "wait a minute. Now you'll be looking at my butt all the way up the steps.""yes but you probably have a great butt," Min said. "it's an entirely different dynamic.”

“As my mother once said to me, ‘They’re quite crazy, dear – men are. What you look for is one of them whose insanity is large enough, and calm and generous enough, to include you.”