“Just give hime five more minutes and he would surely fall into the German gutter and die. They would all let him, and they would all watch.Then, one human.Hans Hubermann.”

“He had been drunk over in town, and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at. A body would a thought he was Adam, he was just all mud.”

“You'd probably marry me just to annoy your father."He grinned. "Well, that would certainly be a bonus.""Why don't you like him?" I asked. "He seems all right.""In five-minute doses," Win muttered.”

“What is most mortifying of all is that it is chance - simply a barbarous, lagging chance. That is what is mortifying! Five minutes, only five minutes too late! Had I come five minutes earlier, the moment would have passed away like a cloud, and it would never have entered her head again. And it would have ended by her understanding it all. But now again empty rooms, and me alone. Here the pendulum is ticking; it does not care, it has no pity... There is no one - that's the misery of it!”

“Rather than arriving five hours late and flustered, it would be better all around if he were to arrive five hours and a few extra minutes late, but triumphantly in command.”

“Think you can maybe not die for five minutes?""I'll try,"I told him seriously."You know, if anyone else said that, it would be funny.”