“With his eyes and those hands there won't be a woman safe in all the world when he starts hunting after the ladies.''Courting, dear,' my father corrected gently.'Semantics,' she shrugged.”

“In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imaginationand then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.”

“But through it all I held Mrs. Pettibone's words in my heart-the ones she spoke to me after the funeral when she took my hand, looked into my face and said, "You've got your father's eyes.”

“For when is the child the ideal child in our eyes and to our hearts? Is it not when with gentle hand he takes his father by the beard, and turns that father's face up to his brothers and sisters to kiss? when even the lovely selfishness of love-seeking has vanished, and the heart is absorbed in loving?”

“But dear, you hate to sew.I will be married soon. Lady Thiel says a woman with needlework in her hands is generally assumed to have no other thoughts in her head and can safely harbor any number of improprieties. That will come in handy, especially when I'm married to a wizard.”

“She was sweetness and light, gentleness and goodness, and the burning and searing goal of all his earthly hunts and fascinations.”