“I wish I had adventures like you do,” Leaf said as she traced her finger over the writing on the invitation.“They didn’t feel like adventures,” said Arthur.”

“You are an adventurer!" exclaimed Sylvie. She tore herself away from the window and handed the glasses back to her. "But I suppose that could work. Only, what will happen afterwards?"'I was planning to worry about afterwards when there is an afterwards," replied Leaf. "And I'm not an adventurer. At least not by choice. I've done that once and learned my lesson. No more adventures without knowing what I'm getting into.""They wouldn't be adventures, then," said Sylvie.”

“But we survived, didn’t we? That makes it an adventure. If you get killed it’s a tragedy.”

“Hear, hear," said the Dog, raising her head. "It's always better to be doing, Prince. Besides, you don't smell like a coward, so you can't be one.”

“Even now, she wished she could write a note, push it across the table, and go away to her room. But she was no longer a Second Assistant Librarian of the Great Library of the Clayr. Those days were gone, vanished with everything else that had defined her previous existence and identity.”

“A Kiss," said Mogget sleepily. "Actually, just a breath would do. But you have to start kissing someone sometime, I suppose.""A breath?" she asked. She didn't want to kiss just any wooden man. He looked nice enough, but he might not be like his looks. A kiss seemed too forward.”

“If only Sam could have stayed just like the Dog, she thought. A comforting friend without the complication of romantic interest.There had to be something she could do to completely discourage him, short of throwing up, or making herself totally unattractive. "I'm thirty-five," she said at last.”