“Each of us has always hoped that a stranger would come who would scatter holy water on the image of the other and lay it for ever”

“If nothing else, now we knew where to find each other, even if only time would tell if either of us would ever come looking.”

“They looked at each other. They weren't thinking anymore. The time for that had come and gone. Smashed smiles lay ahead of them. But that would be later. Lay Ter.”

“She had never imagined that the kiss would be so brief and desperate and wild. Or that it would taste of holy water. Holy water and blood.”

“Thou, -- dost thou pray?” cried Giovanni, still with the same fiendish scorn. “Thy very prayers, as they come from thy lips, taint the atmosphere with death. Yes, yes; let us pray! Let us to church and dip our fingers in the holy water at the portal! They that come after us will perish as by a pestilence! Let us sign crosses in the air! It will be scattering curses abroad in the likeness of holy symbols!”

“He could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly.”