“He once called her his basil plant; and when she asked for an explanation, said that basil was a plant which had flourished wonderfully on a murdered man's brains.”

“Tip: To avoid bruising the basil, Mama tore the leaves into pieces with her fingers. Chopping is fine, but you won't have basil-scented fingers.”

“It seemed to her that certain parts of the world must produce happiness as they produced peculiar plants which will flourish nowhere else.”

“Nothing, Basil. I’ll see you in a few,”Fine, and it’s Lord Basil.”Even in the bedroom?”Especially in the bedroom.”

“The situation was not easy for her, they knew. Once, at the start of last semester, she had skipped into her lecture hall singing "Getting to Know You" - both verses. At the request of the dean the chairman had called her into his office, but did not ask her for an explanation, not really. He asked her how she was and then smiled in an avuncular way. She said, "Fine," and he studied the way she said it, her front teeth catching on the inside of her lower lip. She was almost pretty, but her face showed the strain and ambition of always having been close but not quite.”

“Later, when they were almost asleep he had called out to her.'Finke?''Yeah?''We'll make a great team. You plant. I build,”