“It occurred to him that seeing a woman's child is like seeing a woman naked, in the way it changes how her face looks to you, how her face becomes less the whole story.”

“...how many writers still dare compare a woman to Nature, like Campion? - there is a garden in her face - how lovely...”

“She does not reply. She would rather hide her face, and he knows why. Because of the disgrace. Because of the shame. That is what their visitors have achieved; that is what they have done to this confidant, modern young woman. Like a stain the story is spreading across the district. Not her story to spread but theirs: they are its owners. How they put her in her place, how they showed her what a woman was for.”

“Goddess” he said. Her voice floated to us. Yes, Child.” Will I see you again?”Just her voice now, young and old at the same time. “In the face of every woman you meet”

“My wife's dying upstairs and I can't do anything about it. I look in her face and I see the memories there. I see how I hurt her and how I said the wrong things and how I got angry and how I wasn't the man she hoped I'd be. I see that in her face and I see she's going to die with that. You think I'm not preoccupied?”

“It's strange how men feel they have the right to criticize a woman's appearance to her face.”