“She was a mischief, and that was a satisfaction; no longer was she a huntress of corralled game”

“Then a strange thing happened. She turned to him and smiled, and as he saw her smile every rag of anger and hurt vanity dropped form him - as though his very moods were but the outer ripples of her own, as though emotion rose no longer in his breast unless she saw fit to pull an omnipotent controlling thread.”

“But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.”

“She was beautiful - but especially she was without mercy.”

“She plucked a twig and broke it, but she found no spring in it.”

“He wondered idly whether she was a poor conversationalist because she got no attention or got no attention because she was a poor conversationalist.”

“She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand.”