“I most certainly can deny it. Of course, if I did, I'd be lying." Mairelon”

“Well?' Jasper said when Mairelon did not reply. 'Who are you?''No, no,' Mairelon said. 'I asked you first. I also, if you recall, asked how you found this place and what you intend to do here, and you haven't told me that, either.''We might ask you the same thing,' Jasper retorted.'You might, but I don't recommend it,' Mairelon said. 'You'll get a reputation as a poor conversationalist if you all can do is repeat what other people say to you.”

“Really, Agatha, you might have told me.”"Told you what?” Mairelon said. “That my ward was once a street thief? I didn’t think it was a secret.”“A street thief?” Letitia wrinkled her nose and looked at Kim with disfavor. “How horrid.”“I think it is the most romantic story I have ever heard”, Miss Matthews said with conviction.”

“Kim was more than a little inclined to snarl at him, but in the past few days she had learned that snarling at Mairelon did little good. He simply smiled and corrected her grammar.”

“And on top of everything, Mairelon hadn't even said she looked nice.”

“If a beauty like Letitia Tarnower couldn't interest Mairelon, and a brilliant wizard like Renee D'Auber hadn't attracted him in all the years they'd known one another, what chance did she, Kim, have?”

“Come one, come all! Prepare to be amazed by the one, the only - Mairelon the Magician!”