“This gentleman here, Michael Hussey, is just an absolute freak.”

“There's a lot of good things about England, but I don't want to tell you too many of them.”

“Poor gentleman," said Mr Segundus. "Perhaps it is the age. It is not an age for magic or scholarship, is it sir? Tradesmen prosper, sailors, politicians, but not magicians. Our time is past.”

“Mr. Segundus began to suspect that they had an uneventful morning, and that when a strange gentleman had walked into the room and dropt down in a swoon, they were rather pleased than otherwise.”

“It was difficult to image quite where this gentleman [a statue] could have come from: he was a little too cheerful for a saint in a church and not quite comical enough for a coffee-house sign.”

“Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange.Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never could.”

“He screamed.Mmm?' inquired the gentleman.I...I would never presume to interrupt you, sir. But the ground appears to be swallowing me up.'It is a bog,' said the gentleman, helpfully.It is certainly a most terrifying substance.”