“She said he looked better. He insisted it wasn't true. Then both were silent. They ate carefully--lonely people no longer astonished by their loneliness.”

“He said he would come in,' the White Queen went on, `because he was looking for a hippopotamus. Now, as it happened, there wasn't such a thing in the house, that morning.'Is there generally?' Alice asked in an astonished tone.Well, only on Thursdays,' said the Queen.”

“I abjure you,” Alcide said. Colonel Flood winced, and young Sid, Amanda, and Culpepper looked both astonished and impressed, as if this were a ceremony they'd never thought to witness. “I see you no longer. I hunt with you no longer. I share flesh with you no longer.”

“They were lonely and sad people, all three of them, and they would not make one another less sad, but they could, with great care, make a world that would accommodate their loneliness.”

“She looked across the room at Will , she wasn't sure why, only to find that he was looking back at her. They both glanced hastily away.”

“Everything he said sounded wonderful, but it wasn't true. I was desperately insecure and I did care what people thought. Jackson wasn't really talking about me. He was talking about an idea of me he'd concocted in his head. As soon as he remembered me and my true weaknesses in the clear light of day, he'd be as cruel this time as he had been the last.”